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THE GERMAN SECRET 
SERVICE IN AMERICA 




Copyright. International Film Servi 



Count Johann von Bernstorff , the 
responsible director of Ger- 
many's secret policies 
in America 



THE GERMAN SECRET 
SERVICE IN AMERICA 



BY 

JOHN PRICE JONES 

AUTHOR OF "AMERICA ENTANGLED" 
AND 

PAUL MERRICK HOLLISTER 




BOSTON 

SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



^ 






^ 



Copyright, 1918, 

By SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY 

(incoepoeatbd) 

Second printing, October, igi8 



Or 



DEC 30 1913 



P/vuU V >Ot>A*W 



©CLA508738 



"It is plain enough how we were forced into the war. 
The extraordinary insults and aggressions of the Imperial 
German Government left us no self-respecting choice but 
to take up arms in defense of our rights as a free people 
and of our honor as a sovereign government. The mili- 
tary masters of Germany denied us the right to be neu- 
tral. They filled our unsuspecting communities with 
vicious spies and conspirators and sought to corrupt the 
opinion of our people in their own behalf. When they 
found they could not do that, their agents diligently 
spread sedition amongst us and sought to draw our own 
citizens from their allegiance — and some of these agents 
were men connected with the official embassy of the Ger- 
man Government itself here in our own capital. They 
sought by violence to destroy our industries and arrest 
our commerce. They tried to incite Mexico to take up 
arms against us and to draw Japan into a hostile alliance 
with her — and that, not by indirection but by direct sug- 
gestion from the Foreign Office in Berlin. They impu- 
dently denied us the use of the high seas and repeatedly 
executed their threat that they would send to their death 
any of our people who ventured to approach the coasts 
of Europe. And many of our own people were cor- 
rupted. Men began to look upon their neighbors with 
suspicion and to wonder in their hot resentment and 
surprise whether there was any community in which hos- 
tile intrigue did not lurk. What great nation in such 



circumstances would not have taken up arms ? Much as 
we have desired peace, it was denied us, and not of our 
our own choice. This flag under which we serve would 
have been dishonored had we withheld our hand." 

— Woodrow Wilson, Flag Day Address 

June 14, 1917 



INTRODUCTION 

A nation at war wants nothing less than com- 
plete information of her enemy. It is hard for 
the mind to conceive exactly what "complete in- 
formation" means, for it includes every fact 
which may contain the lightest indication of the 
enemy strength, her use of that strength, and her 
intention. The nation which sets out to obtain 
complete information of her enemy must pry into 
every neglected corner, fish every innocent pool, 
and collect a mass of matter concerning the indus- 
trial, social and military organization of the 
enemy which when correlated, appraises her 
strength — and her weakness. Nothing less than 
full information will satisfy the mathematical 
maker of war. 

Germany was always precociously fond of in- 
ternational statistics. She wanted — the present 
tense is equally applicable — full information of 
America and her allies so as to attack their vul- 
nerable points. She got a ghastly amount of it, 
and she attacked. This book sets forth how se- 
cret agents of the Teutonic governments acting 
under orders have attacked our national life, both 
before and after our declaration of war ; how men 
and women in Germany's employ on American 



INTRODUCTION 

soil, planned and executed bribery, sedition, ar- 
son, the destruction of property and even mur- 
der, not to mention lesser violations of American 
law ; how they sought to subvert to the advantage 
of the Central Powers the aims of the Govern- 
ment of the United States; how, in short, they 
made enemies of the United States immediately 
the European war had broken out. 

The facts were obtained by the writer first as 
a reporter on the New York Sun who for more 
than a year busied himself with no other con- 
cern, and afterwards in an independent investi- 
gation. Some of them he has cited in a previous 
work. This book brings the story of Germany's 
secret agencies in America up to the early months 
of 1918. Because the writer during the past six 
months has devoted his entire time to the Lib- 
erty Loan, it became necessary for him to leave 
the rearrangement of the work entirely in the 
hands of the co-author, and he desires to acknowl- 
edge his complete indebtedness to the co-author 
for undertaking and carrying out an assignment 
for which the full measure of reward will be de- 
rived from a sharper American consciousness of 
the true nature of our enemy at home and abroad. 

So we dedicate this chronicle to our country. 

John Price Jones. 

New York, June 1, 19 18. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I The Organization 1 I 

The economic, diplomatic and military aspects of 
secret warfare in America — Germany's peace-time or- 
ganization — von Bernstorff, the diplomat — Albert, the 
economist — von Papen and Boy-Ed, the men of war. 

II The Conspirators' Task .19 

The terrain — Lower New York — The consulates — 
The economic problem of supplying Germany and 
checking supplies to the Allies — The diplomatic prob- 
lem of keeping America's friendship — The military 
problem in Canada, Mexico, India, etc. — Germany's 
denial. 



III The Raiders at Sea 28 

The outbreak of war — Mobilization of reservists — 
The Hamburg-American contract — The Berwind — The 
Marina Quecada — The Sacramento — Naval battles. 

IV The Wireless System 43 

The German Embassy a clearing house — Sayville — 
German's knowledge of U. S. wireless — Subsidized 
electrical companies — Aid to the raiders — The Emden 
— The Geier — Charles E. Apgar — The German code. 

V Military Violence 60 

The plan to raid Canadian ports — The first Welland 
Canal plot — Von Papen, von der Goltz and Tauscher 
— The project abandoned — Goltz's arrest — The 
Tauscher trial — Hidden arms — Louden's plan of inva- 
sion. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

VI Paul Koenig 73 

Justice and Metzler — Koenig's personality — von Pa- 
pen's checks — The "little black book" — Telephone codes 
— Shadowing — Koenig's agents — His betrayal. 



VII False Passports . 82 

Hans von Wedell's bureau — The traffic in false 
passports — Carl Ruroede — Methods of forgery — 
Adams' coup — von Wedell's letter to von Bernstorff — 
Stegler — Lody — Berlin counterfeits American passports 
— von Breechow. 



VIII Incendiarism 100 

Increased munitions production — The opening ex- 
plosions — Orders from Berlin — Von Papen and Se- 
attle — July, 191 5 — The Van Koolbergen affai r — The 
Autumn of 1915 — The Pinole explosion. 



IX More Bomb Plots 117 

Kaltschmidt and the Windsor explosions — The Port 
Huron tunnel — Werner Horn — Explosions embarrass 
the Embassy — Black Tom — The second Welland affair 
— Harry Newton — The damage done in three years — 
Waiter spies. 



X Franz Von Rintelen 138 

The leak in the National City Bank — The Minnehaha 
— Von Rintelen's training — His return to America — 
His aims — His funds — Smuggling oil — The Krag- 
Joergensen rifles — Von Rintelen's flight and capture. 



XI Ship Bombs 154 

Mobilizing destroying agents — The plotters in Ho- 
boken — Von Kleist's arrest and confession — The Kirk 
Oswald trial — Further explosions — The Arabic — Robert 
Fay — His arrest — The ship plots decrease. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XII Laror 171 

David Lamar — Labor's National Peace Council — The 
embargo conference — The attempted longshoremen's 
strike — Dr. Dumba's recall. 

XIII The Sinking of the Lusitania .... 190 

The mistress of the seas — Plotting in New York — 
The Lusitania 's escape in February, 1915 — The adver- 
tised warning — The plot — May 7, 1915 — Diplomatic 
correspondence — Gustave Stahl — The results. 

XIV Commercial Ventures . . . . . . 203 

German law in America — Waetzoldt's reports — The 
British blockade — A report from Washington — Stop- 
ping the chlorine supply — Speculation in wool — Dye- 
stuffs and the Deutschland — Purchasing phenol — The 
Bridgeport Projectile Company — The lost portfolio — 
The recall of the attaches — A summary of Dr. Albert's 
efforts. 

XV The Public Mind .225 

Dr. Bertling — The Staats-Zeitung — George Sylves- 
ter Viereck and The Fatherland — Efforts to buy a press 
association — Bernhardi's articles — Marcus Braun and 
Fair Play — Plans for a German news syndicate — San- 
der, Wunnenberg, Bacon and motion pictures — The 
German-American Alliance — Its purposes — Political 
activities — Colquitt of Texas — The "Wisconsin Plan" 
— Lobbying — Misappropriation of German Red Cross 
funds — Friends of Peace — The American Truth So- 
ciety. 

XVI Hindu-German Conspiracies .... 252 

The Society for Advancement in India — "Gaekwar 
Scholarships" — Har Dyal and Gadhr — India in 1914 — 
Papen's report — German and Hindu agents sent to the 
Orient — Gupta in Japan — The raid on von Igel's of- 
fice — Chakravarty replaces Gupta — The Annie Larsen 
and Maverick filibuster — Von Igel's memoranda — Har 
Dyal in Berlin — A request for anarchist agents — 
Ram Chandra — Plots against the East and West In- 
dies — Correspondence between Bernstorff and Berlin, 
1916 — Designs on China, Japan and Africa — Chakra- 
varty arrested — The conspirators indicted. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XVII Mexico, Ireland, and Bolo 228 

Huerta arrives in New York — The restoration plot 
— German intrigue in Central America — The Zimmer- 
mann note — Sinn Fein — Sir Roger Casement and the 
Easter Rebellion — Bolo Pacha in America and France 
— A warning. 



XVIII America Goes to War 320 

Bernstorff's request for bribe-money — The Presi- 
dent on German spies — Interned ships seized — Enemy 
aliens — Interning German agents — The water-front and 
finger-print regulations — Pro-German acts since April, 
1917 — A warning and a prophecy. 

Appendix . 335 

A German Propagandist. 



List of Illustrations 



Count Johann von Bernstorff 

The German Embassy in Washington 
Captain Franz von Papen . 
Captain Karl Boy-Ed 
William J. Flynn .... 
Thomas J. Tunney .... 
Dr. Karl Buenz .... 

Passport given to Horst von der Goltz 
Paul Koenig ..... 
Hans von Wedell and his wife 
Franz von Rintelen .... 
Robert Fay ..... 
Dr. Constantin Dumba . , 
The Lusitania ..... 
Advertisement of the German Embassy 
Checks signed by Adolf Pavenstedt . 
George Sylvester Viereck . 
Letter from Count von Bernstorff 
Check from Count von Bernstorff 
Letter-paper of " The Friends of Peace " 
Dr. Chakravarty .... 

Jeremiah A. O'Leary 
Paul Bolo Pacha .... 



Frontispiece \ 


PAGE 


. 2 V 




12 v 




16 V 




22 y 




26 y 




32 / 




64 




. 74 " 




. 84 s 




138- 




166 




184 




190 




194 . 




230 




234 




236 




238 




250 




284 




302 



310 



THE GERMAN SECRET 
SERVICE IN AMERICA 

CHAPTER I 

L THE organization 

The economic, diplomatic and military aspects of se- 
cret warfare in America — Germany's peace-time organi- 
zation — von Bernstorff", the diplomat — Albert, the econ- 
omist — von Papen and Boy-Ed, the men of war. 

When, in the summer of 1914, the loaded dice 
fell for war, Germany began a campaign over- 
seas as thoughtfully forecasted as that first head- 
long flood which rolled to the Marne. World- 
domination was the Prussian objective. It is 
quite natural that the United States, whose in- 
fluence affected a large part of the world, should 
have received swift attention from Berlin. 
America and Americans could serve Germany's 
purpose in numerous ways, and the possible 
assets of the United States had been searchingly 
assayed in Berlin long before the arrival of "Der 
Tag." 

The day dawned — and Germany found herself 



2 The German Secret Service in America 

hemmed in by enemies. Her navy did not con- 
trol the oceans upon which she had depended for 
a large percentage of her required food and raw 
materials, and upon which she must continue to 
depend if her output were to keep pace with her 
war needs. If surprise-attack should fail to 
bring the contest to a sudden and favorable con- 
clusion, Germany was prepared to accept the 
more probable alternative of a contest of eco- 
nomic endurance. Therefore, she reasoned, sup- 
plies must continue to come from America. 

Of importance scarcely secondary to the eco- 
nomic phase of her warfare in the United States 
was the diplomatic problem. Here was a nation 
of infinite resources, a people of infinite resource. 
This nation must be enlisted on the side of the 
Central Powers; failing that, must be kept 
friendly; under no circumstances was she to be 
allowed to enlist with the Allies. One funda- 
mental trait of Americans Germany held too 
lightly — their blood-kinship to Britons — and it 
is a grimly amusing commentary upon the con- 
fidence of the German in bonds Teutonic that he 
believed that the antidote to this racial "weak- 
ness" of ours lay in the large numbers of Ger- 
mans who had settled here and become Americans 
of sorts. But the German was alarmingly if not 
absolutely correct in his estimate, for upon the 



The Organization & 

conduct and zeal of Germans in America actually 
depended much of the success of Germany's dip- 
lomatic tactics in America. 

The war, then, so far as the United States 
figured in Germany's plan, was economic and 
diplomatic. But it was also military. German 
representatives in the United States were bound 
by oath to cooperate to their utmost in all mili- 
tary enterprises within their reach. With a cer- 
tain few notable exceptions, no such enterprises 
came within their reach, and if the reader antici- 
pates from that fact a disappointing lack of vio- 
lence in the narrative to follow, let him remember 
that "all's fair in war," and that every German 
activity in the United States, whether it was eco- 
nomic, diplomatic or military, was carried on 
with a certain Prussian thoroughness which was 

CD 

chiefly characterized by brutal violence. 

We have come to believe that thoroughness is 
the first and last word in German organiza- 
tion. Any really thorough organization must be 
promptly convertible to new activities without 
loss of motion. If these new activities are unex- 
pected, the change is more or less of an experi- 
ment, and its possibilities are not ominous. But 
truly dangerous is the organization which trans- 
fers suddenly to coping with the expected. Ger- 
many had expected war for forty years. 



4 The German Secret Service in America 

Her peace-time organization in America con- 
sisted of four executives : an ambassador, a fiscal 
agent, a military attache, and a naval attache. 
Its chief was the ambassador, comparable in his 
duties and privileges to the president of a cor- 
poration, the representative with full authority to 
negotiate with other organizations, and respon- 
sible to his board of directors — the foreign office 
in Berlin. Its treasurer was the fiscal agent. 
And its department heads were the military and 
naval attaches, each responsible in some degree 
to his superiors in matters of policy and finances, 
and answerable also to Berlin. 

The functions of the chief were two-fold. Con- 
vincing evidence produced by the State Depart- 
ment has placed at his door the ultimate responsi- 
bility for executing Germany's commands not in 
the United States alone, but throughout all of the 
world excepting Middle Europe. Under his 
eyes passed Berlin's instructions to her envoys 
in both Americas, and through his hands passed 
their reports. He directed and delegated the 
administration of all German policy in the west- 
ern world and the far east, and of course directed 
all strictly diplomatic enterprises afoot in the 
United States. 

Germany could hardly have chosen an abler 
envoy than this latest of all the Bernstorff s, Jo- 



The Organization 5 

hann, a statesman whose ancestors for genera- 
tions had been Saxon diplomats. A glance at 
the man's countenance convinced one of his pow- 
ers of concentration: the many lines of his face 
seemed to focus on a point between his eyebrows. 
And yet his expression was hardly grim. The 
modeling of his head was unusually strong, his 
features sensitive, with no trace of weakness. If 
there had been weakness about his mouth, it 
was concealed by the conventional ferocity of a 
Hohenzollern moustache, and yet those untruth- 
ful lips could part in an ingratiating smile which 
flashed ingenuous friendliness. His frame was 
tall and slender, his mannerisms suggested care- 
fully bridled nervous activity. The entire ap- 
pearance of the man may best be described by a 
much-abused term — he was "distinguished." 

Count von BernstorfT, once his nation had de- 
clared war upon France and England, went to 
war with the United States. As ambassador, 
diplomatic courtesy gave him a scope of observa- 
tion limited only by the dignity of his position. 
A seat in a special gallery in the Senate and 
House of Representatives was always ready for 
his occupancy; he could virtually command the 
attention of the White House ; and senators, con- 
gressmen and office-holders from German- Amer- 
ican districts respected him. Messengers kept 



6 The German Secret Service in America 

him in constant touch with the line-up of Con- 
gress on important issues, and two hours later 
that line-up was known in the Foreign Office in 
Berlin. As head and front of the German spy 
system in America, he held cautiously aloof from 
all but the most instrumental acquaintances : men 
and women of prominent political and social in- 
fluence who he knew were inclined, for good and 
sufficient reasons, to help him. One woman, 
whose bills he paid at a Fifth Avenue gown hoUse, 
was the wife of a prominent broker and another 
woman of confessedly German affiliations who 
served him lived within a stone's throw of the 
Metropolitan Museum and its nearby phalanx of 
gilded dwellings (her husband's office was in a 
building at 1 1 Broadway, of which more anon) ; 
a third woman intimate lived in a comfortable 
apartment near Fifth Avenue — an apartment se- 
lected for her, though she was unaware of it, by 
secret agents of the United States. During the 
early days of the war the promise of social spon- 
sorship which any embassy in Washington could 
extend proved bait for a number of ingenues of 
various ages, with ambition and mischief in their 
minds, and the gracious Ambassador played them 
smoothly and dexterously. Mostly they were not 
German women, for the German women of Amer- 
ica were not so likely to be useful socially, nor as 



The Organization 7 

a type so astute as to qualify them for von Berns- 
torff's delicate work. To those whom he chose 
to see he was courteous, and superficially frank 
almost to the point of naivete. The pressure of 
negotiation between Washington and Berlin be- 
came more and more exacting as the war pro- 
gressed, yet he found'" time to command a cam- 
paign whose success would have resulted in dis- 
aster to the United States. That he was not 
blamed for the failure of that campaign when 
he returned 4 to Germany in April, 1917, is evi- 
denced by his prompt appointment to the court 
of Turkey, a difficult and important post, and in 
the case of Michaelis, a stepping-stone to the 
highest post in the Foreign Office. 

Upon the shoulders of Dr. Heinrich Albert, 
privy counsellor and fiscal agent of the German 
Empire, fell the practical execution of German 
propaganda throughout America. He was the 
American agent of a government which has done 
more than any other to cooperate with business 
towards the extension of influence abroad, on the 
principle that "the flag follows the constitution." 
As such he had had his finger on the pulse of 
American trade, had catalogued exhaustively the 
economic resources of the country, and held in 
his debt, as his nation's treasurer in America, 
scores of bankers, manufacturers and traders to 



8 The German Secret Service in America 

whom Germany had extended subsidy. As such 
also he was the paymaster of the Imperial secret 
diplomatic and consular agents. 

You could find him almost any day until the 
break with Germany in a small office in the Ham- 
burg-American Building (a beehive of secret 
agents) at No. 45 Broadway, New York. He 
was tall and slender, and wore the sombre frock 
coat of the European business man with real 
grace. His eyes were blue and clear, his face 
clean-shaven and faintly sabre-scarred, and his 
hair blond. He impressed one as an unusual 
young man in a highly responsible position. His 
greeting to visitors, of whom he had few, was 
punctilious, his bow low, and his manner alto- 
gether polite. He encouraged conversation 
rather than offered it. He had none of the "hard 
snap" of the energetic, outspoken, brusque 
American man of business. Dr. Albert was a 
smooth-running, well-turned cog in the great 
machine of Prussian militarism. 

Upon him rested the task of spending between 
$2,000,000 and $3,000,000 a week for German 
propaganda. He spent thirty millions at least — 
and only Germany knows how much more — in 
secret agency work, also known by the uglier 
names of bribery, sedition and conspiracy. He 
admitted that he wasted a half million or 



The Organization 9 

more. He had a joint account with Bernstorff 
in the Chase National Bank, New York, which 
amounted at times to several millions. His re- 
sources gave weight to his utterances in the quiet 
office overlooking Broadway, or in the German 
Club in Central Park South, or in the consulates 
or hotels of Chicago and New Orleans and San 
Francisco, to which he made occasional trips to 
confer with German business men. 

His colleagues held him in high esteem. His 
methods were quiet and successful, and his par- 
ticipation in the offences against America's peace 
might have passed unproven had he not been en- 
gaged in a too-absorbing conversation one day in 
August, 1915, upon a Sixth Avenue elevated 
train. He started up to leave the train at 
Fiftieth Street, and carelessly left his portfolio 
behind him — to the tender care of a United States 
Secret Service man. It contained documents re- 
vealing his complicity in enterprises the magni- 
tude of which beggars the imagination. The 
publication of certain of those documents awoke 
the slumbering populace to a feeling of chagrin 
and anger almost equal to his own at the loss of 
his dossier. And yet he stayed on in America, 
and returned with the ambassadorial party to 
Germany only after the severance of diplomatic 
relations in 191 7, credited with expert general- 



10 The German Secret Service in America 

ship on the economic sector of the American 
front. 

Germany's military attache to the United 
States was Captain Franz von Papen. His mis- 
sion was the study of the United States army. 
In August, 1 914, it may be assumed that he had 
absorbed most of the useful information of the 
United States army, which at that moment was 
no superhuman problem. In July of that year 
he was in Mexico, observing, among other mat- 
ters, the effect of dynamite explosions on rail- 
ways. He was quite familiar with Mexico. Ac- 
cording to Admiral von Hintze he had organized 
a military unit in the lukewarm German colony 
in Mexico City, and he used one or more of the 
warring factions in the southern republic to test 
the efficacy of various means of warfare. 

The rumble of a European war sent him scur- 
rying northward. From Mexico on July 29 he 
wired Captain Boy-Ed — of whom more presently 
— in New York to 

". . . arrange business for me too with Pavenstedt," 

which referred to the fact that Boy-Ed had just 
engaged office space in the offices of G. Amsinck 
& Company, New York, which was at that time 
a German house of which Adolph Pavenstedt 
was the president, but which has since been 



The Organization 11 

taken over by American interests. And he 
added : 

"Then inform Lersner. The Russian attache ordered 
back to Washington by telegraph. On outbreak of war 
have intermediaries locate by detective where Russian and 
French intelligence office." 

The latter part of the message is open to two in- 
terpretations : that Boy-Ed was to have detectives 
locate the Russian and French secret service offi- 
cers ; or that Boy- Ed was to place German spies 
in those offices. 

Captain von Papen reported to his ministry of 
war anent the railway explosions : 

"I consider it out of the question that explosives pre- 
pared in this way would have to be reckoned with in a 
European war . . ." 

a significant opinion, which he changed later. 

What of the man himself? He was all that 
"German officer" suggested at that time to any 
one who had traveled in Germany. His military 
training had been exhaustive. Though he had 
not seen "active service," his life, from the early 
youth when he had been selected from his gym- 
nasium fellows for secret service in Abteilung 
III of the great bureau, had been unusually ac- 
tive. He had traveled as a civilian over various 
countries, drawing maps, harking to the senti- 



12 The German Secret Service in America 

ment of the people, and checking from time to 
time the operations of resident German agents 
abroad. His disguises were thorough, as this 
incident will illustrate: In Hamburg, at the 
army riding school where von Papen was trained, 
young officers are taught the French style. Yet 
one fine morning in Central Park he stopped to 
chat with an acquaintance who had bought a 
mare. Von Papen admired the mount, promptly 
named its breed, and told in what counties in Ire- 
land the best specimens of that breed could be 
found — information called up from a riding tour 
he had made over the length and breadth of Ire- 
land. It is commonly said that horsemen trained 
in the French style cling to its mannerisms, but 
a cavalier revealing those mannerisms in Ireland, 
where the style is exclusively English, would have 
attracted undue attention. So he had disguised 
even his horsemanship ! 

A man who moves constantly about among 
more or less unsuspecting peoples seeking their 
military weakness becomes intolerant. Toler- 
ance is scarcely a German military trait, and in 
that respect Captain von Papen was consistently 
loyal to his own superior organization. "I al- 
ways say to those idiotic Yankees they had better 
hold their tongues," he wrote to his wife in a 
letter which fell later into the hands of those same 




Copyright. International News Service 

Captain Franz von Papen 



The Organization . 13 

"bloedsinnige" Yankees. He was inordinately 
proud of his facility in operating unobserved, ar- 
rogant of his ability, and blunt in his criticism 
of his associates. He telegraphed Boy-Ed on one 
occasion to be more cautious. The gracious col- 
league replied, in a letter: 

"Dear Papen: A secret agent who returned from 
Washington this evening made the following statement: 
'The Washington people are very much excited about von 
Papen and are having a constant watch kept on him. 
They are in possession of a whole heap of incriminating 
evidence against him. They have no evidence against 
Count B. and Captain B-E (!).'" 

And Boy-Ed, a trifle optimistically, perhaps, 
added : 

"In this connection I would suggest with due diffidence 
that perhaps the first part of your telegram is worded 
rather too emphatically." 

Von Papen was a man of war, a Prussian, the 
Feldmarschal of the Kaiser in America. In ap- 
pearance he bespoke his vigor : he was well set up, 
rawboned, with a long nose, prominent ears, keen 
eyes and a strong lower jaw. He was energetic 
in speech and swift in formulating daring plans. 
In those first frantic weeks after the declaration 
of war he reached out in all directions to snap 
taut the strings that held his organization to- 



14 The German Secret Service in America 

gether — German reservists who had been peace- 
ful farmers, shopkeepers or waiters, all over the 
United States, were mobilized for service, and 
paraded through Battery Park in New York 
shouting "Deutschland, Deutschland ueber alles !" 
to the strains of the Austrian hymn, while they 
waited for Papen's orders from a building near 
by, and picked quarrels with a counter procession 
of Frenchmen screaming the immortal "Marseil- 
laise." Up in his office sat the attache, summon- 
ing, assigning, despatching his men on missions 
that were designed to terrorize America as the 
spiked helmets were terrorizing Belgium at that 
moment. 

And he, too, failed. Although von Papen mar- 
shaled his consuls, his reservists, his thugs, his 
women, and his skilled agents, for a programme 
of violence the like of which America had never 
experienced, the military phase of the war was 
not destined for decision here, and there is again 
something ironical in the fact that the arrogance 
of Captain von Papen's outrages hastened the 
coming of war to America and the decline of Cap- 
tain von Papen's style of warfare in America. 

The Kaiser's naval attache at Washington was 
Karl Boy-Ed, the child of a German mother and 
a Turkish father, who had elected a naval career 
and shown a degree of aptitude for his work 



The Organization 15 

which qualified him presently for the post of chief 
lieutenant to von Tirpitz. He was one of the 
six young officers who were admitted to the chief 
councils of the German navy, as training for high 
executive posts. In the capacity of news chief 
of the Imperial navy, Boy-Ed carried on two 
highly successful press campaigns to influence 
the public on the eve of requests for heavy naval 
appropriations, the second, in 1910, calling 
for 400,000,000 marks. He spread broadcast 
through cleverly contrived pamphlets and through 
articles placed in the subsidized press, a national 
resentment against British naval dominion. His 
duties took him all over the world as naval ob- 
server, and he may be credited more than casu- 
ally with weaving the plan-fabric of marine su- 
premacy with which Germany proposed in due 
time to envelop the world. 

So he impressed diplomatic Washington in 
191 1 as a polished cosmopolite. Polished he was, 
measured by the standards of diplomatic Wash- 
ington, for rare was the young American of 
Boy-Ed's age who had his cultivation, his wide 
experience, and his brilliant charm. He was 
sought after by admiring mothers long before 
he was sought after by the Secret Service; he 
moved among the clubs of Washington and New 
York making intimates of men whose friendship 



16 The German Secret Service in America 

and confidence would serve the Fatherland, cloak- 
ing his real designs by frivolity and frequent 
attendances at social functions. His peace-time 
duties had been to study the American navy; to 
familiarize himself with its ship power and per- 
sonnel, with its plans for expansion, its theories 
of strategy, its means of supply, and finally, with 
the coast defenses of the country. He had 
learned his lesson, and furnished Berlin with 
clear reports. On those reports, together with 
those of his colleagues in other countries, hinged 
Germany's readiness to enter war, for it would 
have been folly to attempt a war of domination 
with America an unknown, uncatalogued naval 
power. (It will be well to recall that the sub- 
marine is an American invention, and that Ger- 
many's greatest submarine development took 
place in the years 1911-1914.) 

And then, suddenly, he dropped the cloak. 
The Turk in him stood at attention while the 
German in him gave him sharp orders — com- 
mands to be carried out with Oriental adroitness 
and Prussian finish. Then those who had said 
lightly that "Boy-Ed knows more about our navy 
than Annapolis itself" began to realize that they 
had spoken an alarming truth. His war duties 
were manifold. Like von Papen, he had his 
corps of reservists, his secret agents, his silent 




Cofy-ight. Jnttrnational Ntwi Seniici 



Captain Karl Boy-Ed (on the right) 



The Organization 17 

forces everywhere ready for active cooperation 
in carrying out the naval enterprises Germany 
should see fit to undertake in Western waters. 

America learned gradually of the machinations 
of the four executives, Bernstorff, Albert, Papen 
and Boy- Ed. America had not long to wait for 
evidences of their activity, but it was a long time 
before the processes of investigation revealed 
their source. It was inevitable that they could 
not work undiscovered for long, and they seem 
to have realized that they must do the utmost 
damage at top speed. Their own trails were cov- 
ered for a time by the obscure identities of their 
subordinates. The law jumps to no conclusions. 
Their own persons were protected by diplomatic 
courtesy. It required more than two years of 
tedious search for orthodox legal evidence to 
arraign these men publicly in their guilt, and 
when that evidence had finally been obtained, and 
Germany's protest of innocence had been de- 
flated, it was not these men who suffered, but 
their country, and the price she paid was war 
with America. 

A hundred or more of their subordinates have 
been convicted of various criminal offenses and 
sent to prison. Still more were promptly in- 
terned in prison camps at the outbreak of war in 
1 9 1 7. The secret army included all types, from 



18 The German Secret Service in America 

bankers to longshoremen. Many of them were 
conspicuous figures in American public life, and 
of these no small part were allowed to remain 
at large under certain restrictions — and under 
surveillance. Germany's army in the United 
States was powerful in numbers ; the fact that so 
many agents were working destruction probably 
hastened their discovery ; the loyalty of many so- 
called German-Americans was always question- 
able. The public mind, confused as it had never 
been before by the news of war, was groping 
about for sound fundamentals, and was being 
tantalized with false principles by the politicians. 
Meanwhile Count von Bernstorff was watching 
Congress and the President, Dr. Albert was busy 
in great schemes, Captain von Papen was com- 
manding an active army of spies, and Captain 
Boy-Ed was engaged in a bitter fight with the 
British navy. 



CHAPTER II 

THE CONSPIRATORS' TASK 

The terrain — Lower New York — The consulates — The 
economic problem of supplying Germany and checking 
supplies to the Allies — The diplomatic problem of keep- 
ing America's friendship — The military problem in Can- 
ada, Mexico, India, etc. — Germany's denial. 

The playwright selects from the affairs of a 
group of people a few characters and incidents, 
and works them together into a three-hour plot. 
He may include no matter which is not relevant 
to the development of his story, and although in 
the hands of the artist the play seems to pierce 
clearly into the characters of the persons in- 
volved, in reality he is constructing a framework, 
whose angles are only the more prominent 
salients of character and episode. The stage 
limits him, whether his story takes place in the 
kitchen or on the battlefield. 

The drama of German spy operations in Amer- 
ica is of baffling proportions. Its curtain rose 
long before the war; its early episodes were 
grave enough to have caused, any one of them, a 

19 



20 The German Secret Service in America 

nine-days' wonder in the press, its climax was 
rather a huge accumulation of intolerable disas- 
ters than a single outstanding incident, and its 
denouement continued long after America's decla- 
ration of war. In the previous chapter we have 
accepted our limitations and introduced only the 
four chief characters of the play. It is neces- 
sary, in describing the motives for their enter- 
prises, to appreciate the problems which their 
scene of operations presented. 

The world was their workshop. Plots hatched 
in Berlin and developed in Washington and New 
York bore fruit from Sweden to India, from Can- 
ada to Chili. The economic importance of the 
United States in the war needs no further proof 
than its vast area, its miles of seacoast, its vol- 
ume of export and import, and its producing 
power. As a diplomatic problem it offered, 
among other things, a public opinion of a hundred 
million people of parti-colored temperament, 
played upon by a force of some 40,000 publica- 
tions. As a military factor, the United States 
possessed a strong fleet, owned the only Atlantic- 
Pacific waterway, was bounded on the south by 
Mexico and the coveted Gulf, and on the north 
by one of Germany's enemies. There was hardly 
a developed section of the nation which did not 
require prompt and radical German attention, or 



The Conspirators 3 Task 21 

one which did not receive it in proportion to its 
industrial development. Washington, as the 
governmental capital, and New York as the real 
capital became at once the headquarters of Ger- 
man operations in the western world. 

Count von Bernstorfl directed all enterprises 
from the Imperial Embassy in Washington, and 
from the Ritz-Carlton in New York. An ambas- 
sador was once asked by an ingenuous woman at 
a New York dinner whether he often ran counter 
of European spies. "Oh, yes," he replied. "I 

used to stop at the , but my baggage was 

searched by German agents so often that I moved 

to the . But there it was just as bad." 

"Didn't you complain to the management?" — the 
lady wanted particulars. "No," the diplomat an- 
swered naturally, "for you see every time Berns- 

torff stops at the I have his baggage 

searched, too!" 

The strands of intrigue focussed from every 
corner of America upon the lower tip of Man- 
hattan. In a tall building at 1 1 Broadway, which 
towers over Bowling Green and confronts the 
New York Custom House, Captain Boy-Ed had 
his office. A long stone's throw to the northward 
stood the Hamburg- American building; there Dr. 
Albert carried on much of his business. Captain 
von Papen had offices on the twenty-fifth floor 



22 The German Secret Service in America 

of No. 60 Wall Street. If we regard 1 1 Broad- 
way as the tip of a triangle, with Wall Street and 
Broadway forming its right angle and 60 Wall 
Street as its other extremity, we find that its 
imaginary hypotenuse travels through the build- 
ing of J. P. Morgan & Company, chief bankers 
for the Allies ; through the New York Stock Ex- 
change, where the so-called "Christmas leak" 
turned a pretty penny for certain German sym- 
pathizers in 19 16; through the home of the Stand- 
ard Oil Companies, as well as through several 
great structures of less strategic importance. 
There is more than mere coincidence in this geo- 
metrical freak — Germany held her stethoscope as 
close as possible to the heart of American busi- 
ness. Fortunately, however, the offices of Chief 
William J. Flynn — until January, 1918, head of 
the United States Secret Service — were in the 
Custom House near by. 

After business hours these men met their sub- 
ordinates at various rendezvous in the city; the 
hotels were convenient, the Manhattan was fre- 
quently appointed, and the Deutscher Verein at 
112 Central Park South was the liveliest ganglion 
of all the nerve centers of a system of communi- 
cation which tapped every section of the great 
community. 

In the lesser cities the German consulate served 




Copyright, International Film Se 



William J. Flynn, chief of the United States Secret Service 
until 19 1 8, who led the hunt of the German spy 



The Conspirators 3 Task 23 

as the nucleus for the organization. That in San 
Francisco is conspicuous for its activity, for it 
prosecuted its own warfare on the entire Pacific 
coast. Wherever it was necessary German sym- 
pathizers furnished accommodations for offices 
and storage room. Headquarters of every char- 
acter dotted the country from salons to saloons, 
from skyscrapers to cellars, each an active control 
in the manipulation of Germany's almost innum- 
erable enterprises. 

Those enterprises may be best outlined per- 
haps, by recalling the three phases of warfare 
which Germany had to pursue. America had 
shipped foodstuffs and raw materials in enormous 
quantities for many years to Germany. Dr. Al- 
bert must see to it that she continue to do so. 
The Imperial funds were at his disposal. He 
had already the requisite contact with American 
business. But let him also exert his utmost influ- 
ence upon America to stop supplying the Allies. 
If he could do it alone, so much the better ; if not, 
he was at liberty to call upon the military and 
naval attaches. But in any case "food and arms 
for Germany and none for the Allies" was the 
economic war-cry. 

American supplies must be purchased for Ger- 
many and shipped through the European neutral 
nations, running the blockade. If capital proved 



24 The German Secret Service in America. 

obstinate and the Allies covered the market, it 
would be well to remember that labor produced 
supplies ; labor must therefore be prevented from 
producing or shipping to the Allies. If labor re- 
fused to be interfered with, the cargoes should be 
destroyed. 

His enormous task would depend, of course, 
very much upon the turn of affairs diplomatic. 
The State Department must be kept amicable. 
The Glad Hand was to be extended to official 
America, while the Mailed Fist thrashed about 
in official America's constituencies. Thus also 
with Congress, through influential lobbying or 
the pressure of constituents. Count von Berns- 
torff knew that the shout raised in a far-off state 
by a few well-rehearsed pacifists, reinforced by a 
few newspaper comments, would carry loud and 
clear to Washington. Upon his shoulders rested 
the entire existence of the German plan, and he 
spent a highly active and trying thirty months in 
Washington in an attempt to avoid the inevitable 
diplomatic rupture. 

The military problem quickly resolved itself 
into two enterprises ; carrying war to the enemy, 
and giving aid and comfort to its own forces — 
in this case the German navy. As the war pro- 
gressed, and the opportunity for strictly military 
operations became less likely, the two Captains 



The Conspirators' Task 25 

occupied their time in injecting a quite military 
flavor into the enterprises Bernstorff* and Albert 
had on foot. As a strategic measure Mexico 
must divert America's attention from Europe and 
remove to the border her available forces. 
Meanwhile, German reservists must be supplied 
to their home regiments. Failing that they must 
be mobilized for service against Germany's near- 
est enemy here — Canada. German raiders at sea 
must be supplied. German communication with 
her military forces abroad must be maintained 
uninterrupted. 

Long after the departure of the principals for 
their native land the enterprises persisted. It 
may be well here to extend to the secret agents of 
the United States the tribute which is their due. 
To Chief Flynn, of the United States Secret 
Service of the Treasury Department, to A. Bruce 
Bielaski, head of the special agents of the De- 
partment of Justice, to W. M. Offley, former 
Superintendent of the New York Bureau of Spe- 
cial Agents, to Roger B. Wood, Assistant United 
States District Attorney, to his successor, John C. 
Knox, (now a Federal judge), to Raymond B. 
Sarfaty, Mr. Wood's assistant who developed the 
Rintelen case, to former Police Commissioner 
Arthur Woods of New York, his deputy, Guy 
Scull, his police captain, Thomas J. Tunney, and 



26 The German Secret Service in America 

to the men who worked obscurely and tirelessly 
with them to avert disasters whose fiendish inten- 
tion shook the faith if not the courage of a nation. 
Those men found Germany out in time. 

Germany was fluent in her denials. When the 
President in his message to Congress in Decem- 
ber, 191 5, bitterly attacked Germans and German- 
Americans for their activities in America, accus- 
ing the latter of treason, the German government 
authorized a statement to the Berlin correspond- 
ent of the New York Sun on December 19, 1915, 
to the effect that it 

"naturally has never knowingly accepted the support of 
any person, group of persons, society or organization 
seeking to promote the cause of Germany in the United 
States by illegal acts, by counsels of violence, by contra- 
vention of law, or by any means whatever that could 
offend the American people in the pride of their own 
authority. If it should be alleged that improper acts 
have been committed by representatives of the German 
Government they could be easily dealt with. To any 
complaints upon proof as may be submitted by the Amer- 
ican Government suitable response will be duly made. 
. . . Apparently the enemies of Germany have succeeded 
in creating the impression that the German Government 
is in some way, morally or otherwise, responsible for 
what Mr. Wilson has characterized as anti-American 
activities, comprehending attacks upon property in viola- 
tion of the rules which the American Government has 
seen fit to impose upon the course of neutral trade. This 




Inspector Thomas J. Tunney of the New York Police Depart- 
ment, head of the "Bomb Squad" and foremost in 
apprehending many important German agents 



The Conspirators' Task 27 

the German Government absolutely denies. It cannot 
specifically repudiate acts committed by individuals over 
whom it has no control, and of whose movements it is 
neither officially nor unofficially informed." 

To this statement there is one outstanding an- 
swer. It is an excerpt from the German book 
of instructions for officers : 

"Bribery of the enemy's subjects with the object of 
obtaining military advantages, acceptances of offers of 
treachery, reception of deserters, utilization of the dis- 
contented elements in the population, support of the pre- 
tenders and the like are permissible ; indeed international 
law is in no way opposed to the exploitation of the crimes 
of third parties (assassination, incendiarism, robbery and 
the like) to the prejudice of the enemy. Considerations 
of chivalry, generosity and honor may denounce in such 
cases a hasty and unsparing exploitation of such advan- 
tages as indecent and dishonorable, but law, which is less 
touchy, allows it. The ugly and inherently immoral as- 
pect of such methods cannot affect the recognition of their 
lawfulness. The necessary aim of war gives the bel- 
ligerent the right and imposes upon him, according to 
circumstances, the duty not to let slip the important, it 
may be decisive, advantages to be gained by such means." 

("The War Book of the German General Staff," trans- 
lated by J. H. Morgan, M.A., pp. 113-114.) 



CHAPTER III 

THE RAIDERS AT SEA 

The outbreak of war — Mobilization of reservists — The 
Hamburg-American contract — The Berwind — The Ma- 
rina Quezada — The Sacramento — Naval battles. 

A fanatic student in the streets of Sarajevo, 
Bosnia, threw a bomb at a visiting dignitary, and 
the world went to war. That occurred on the 
sunny forenoon of June 28, 19 14. The assassin 
was chased by the police, the newspaper men, and 
the photographers, who reached him almost simul- 
taneously, and presently the world knew that the 
Archduke Francis Ferdinand, of Austria, was the 
victim, and that a plain frightened fellow, strug- 
gling in the shadow of a doorway, was his assail- 
ant. 

Austria's resentment of the crime mounted 
during July and boiled over in the ultimatum of 
July 23. Five days later, with Germany's per- 
mission, Austria declared war on Servia. By 
this time continental tempers had been aroused, 
and the Central Empires knew that "Der Tag" 

28 



The Raiders at Sea 29 

had come. Austria, Russia, Germany, England, 
France and Belgium entered the lists within a 
fortnight. 

By mid- July Germany had warned her agents 
in other lands of the imminence of war and a 
quiet mobilization had begun of the more impor- 
tant reservists in America. Captain von Papen, 
after dispatching his telegram from Mexico via 
El Paso to Captain Boy-Ed, hurried to Washing- 
ton, arriving there on August 3. He began to 
weld together into a vast band the scientists, ex- 
perts, secret agents and German army-reservists, 
who were under German military oaths, and were 
prepared to gather information or to execute a 
military enterprise "zu Befehl!" How rapidly 
he assembled his staff is shown in testimony given 
on the witness stand by "Horst von der Goltz," 
alias Bridgeman Taylor, alias Major Wachen- 
dorf, a German spy who had been a major in a 
Mexican army until July. 

A German consul in El Paso had sounded out 
Goltz's willingness to return to German service. 
"A few days later, the 3rd of August, 1914, 
license was given by my commanding officer to 
separate myself from the service of my brigade 
for the term of six months. I left directly for 
El Paso, Texas, where I was told by Mr. Kueck, 
German Consul at Chihuahua, Mexico, who 



30 The German Secret Service in America 

stayed there, to put myself at the disposition of 
Captain von Papen." This was two days before 
the final declaration of war. 

All German and Austro-Hungarian consulates 
received orders to coordinate their own staffs for 
war service. Germany herself supplied the 
American front with men by wireless commands 
to all parts of the world. Captain Hans 
Tauscher, who enjoyed the double distinction of 
being agent in America for the Krupps and hus- 
band of a noted operatic singer, Mme. Johanna 
Gadski, chanced to be in Berlin when war broke 
out, reported for duty and was at once detailed to 
return to the United States and report to von 
Papen, as Wilhelmstrasse saw the usefulness of 
an ordnance expert in intimate touch with our 
Ordnance Department and our explosives plants. 
Two German officers detailed to topographical 
duty, who had spent years mapping Japan, and 
were engaged in the same work in British Colum- 
bia, jumped the border to the United States, 
taking with them their families, their informa- 
tion and their fine surveying and photographic in- 
struments, and in the blocking out of the country 
which the wise men in the East were performing, 
were assigned to the White Mountains. Rail- 
roads and ships to the Atlantic seaboard bore 
every day new groups of reserve officers from the 



The Haiders at Sea 31 

Orient and South America to New York for sail- 
ing orders. 

They found von Papen already there. He 
established a consultation headquarters at once 
with Boy-Ed in a room which they rented in the 
offices of G. Amsinck & Co., at 6 Hanover Street. 
From that time forward, New York was to be his 
base of operations, and it was at that moment 
especially convenient to von Bernstorff 's summer 
establishment at Newport. 

The naval situation at once became active. In 
the western and southern Atlantic a scattered 
fleet of German cruisers was still at large. The 
British set out eagerly to the chase. Security lay 
in southern waters, and the German craft dodged 
back and forth through the Straits of Magellan. 
From time to time the quarry was forced by the 
remoteness of supply to show himself, and a battle 
followed ; in the intervals, the Germans lay perdu, 
dashing into port for supplies and out again to 
concealment, or wandering over seldom traveled 
ocean tracks to meet coal and provision ships sent 
out from America. 

Gaptain Boy-Ed received from Berlin constant 
advices of the movements of his vessels. On 
July 31, Dr. Karl Buenz, the American head of 
the Hamburg-American Line, had a cable from 
Berlin which he read and then forwarded to the 



32 The German Secret Service in America 

Embassy in Washington for safekeeping. Until 
1912 Buenz had had no steamship experience, 
having been successively a judge in Germany, a 
consul in Chicago and New York, and minister to 
Mexico. When at the age of 70 he was appointed 
Hamburg-American agent, one of the first mat- 
ters which came to his attention was the consum- 
mation of a contract between the Admiralty Divi- 
sion of the German government and the steam- 
ship line, which provided for the provisioning, 
during war, of German ships at sea, using Amer- 
ica as a base. This contract was jealously 
guarded by the Embassy. 

The cablegram of July 31 called on Dr. Buenz 
to carry out this contract. There was consulta- 
tion at once with Boy-Ed for the location of the 
vessels to be supplied, merchant ships were char- 
tered or purchased, then loaded, and despatched. 
The first to leave New York harbor was the Ber- 
wind. There was hesitancy among the conspira- 
tors as to who should apply for her clearance 
papers — documents of which Dr. Buenz pro- 
tested he knew nothing. They finally told G. B. 
Kulenkampff, a banker and exporter, that the 
Berwind was loaded with coal, and directed him 
to get the clearance papers. He swore to a false 
manifest of her cargo and got them. The Ber- 
wind carried coal to be sure — but she also carried 




Ctftright International Film Serin 



Dr. Karl Buenz, managing director of the 
Hamburg-American Line 



The Raiders at Sea 33 

food for German warships, and she was not 
bound for Buenos Aires, as her clearance papers 
stated. Thus the United States, by innocently 
issuing false papers, made herself, on the third 
day of the war, a party to German naval opera- 
tions. 

The steamship Lorenzo dropped down the har- 
bor, ostensibly for Buenos Aires, on the follow- 
ing day, August 6, cleared by a false manifest, 
and bearing coal and food for German sailors. 
On these ships, and on the Thor (from Newport 
News for Fray Bentos, Uruguay), on the Heine 
(from Philadelphia on August 6 for La Guayra), 
on the /. 6". Mowinckel and the Nepos (out of 
Philadelphia for Monrovia) and others Boy-Ed 
and Buenz had placed supercargoes bearing secret 
instructions. These men had authority to give 
navigating orders to the captains once they were 
outside the three-mile limit — orders to keep a ren- 
dezvous with German battleships by wireless 
somewhere in the Atlantic wastes. 

The Berwind approached the island of Trini- 
dad and Herr Poeppinghaus, who was her super- 
cargo, directed the captain to lie to. Five Ger- 
man ships, the Kap Trafalgar, Pontus, Elinor 
Woerman, Santa Lucia and Eber, approached 
and the transfer of supplies started. It was in- 
terrupted by the British converted cruiser Car- 



34 The German Secret Service in America 

mania. She engaged in a brisk two-hour duel 
with the Kap Trafalgar which ended only when 
the latter sank into the tropical ocean. The Ber- 
wind meanwhile put the horizon between herself 
and the Car mania. 

Few of the chartered ships carried out their 
intentions, although their adventures were vari- 
ous. Hear the story of the Unita: Her skipper 
was Eno Olsen, a Canadian citizen born in Nor- 
way. Urhitzler, the German spy placed aboard, 
made the mistake of assuming that Olsen was 
friendly to Germany. He gave him his "orders," 
and the skipper balked. " 'Nothing doing,' I 
told the supercargo," Captain Olsen testified later, 
with a Norwegian twist to his pronunciation. 
"She's booked to Cadiz, and to Cadiz she goes! 
So the supercargo offered me $500 to change 
my course. 'Nothing doing — nothing doing for 
a million dollars,' I told him. The third day out 
he offered me $10,000. Nothing doing. So," 
announced Captain Olsen with finality, "I sailed 
the Unita to Cadiz and after we got there I sold 
the cargo and looked up the British consul." 

One picturesque incident of the provisioning 
enterprise was the piratical cruise of the good 
ship Gladstone, rechristened, with a German bene- 
diction, Marina Quezada. Under the name of 
Gladstone, the ship had flown the Norwegian flag 



The B aiders at Sea 35 

on a route between Canada and Australia, but 
shortly after the outbreak of war she put into 
Newport News. Simultaneously a sea captain, 
Hans Suhren, a sturdy German formerly of the 
Pacific coast, appeared in New York, called upon 
Captain Boy-Ed, who took kindly interest in him, 
and then departed for Newport News. Here he 
assumed charge of the Marina Quezada. 

"I paid $280,000 in cash for her," he told First 
Officer Bentzen. After hiring a crew, he hur- 
ried back to New York, where he received mes- 
sages in care of "Nordmann, Room 801, 11 
Broadway, N. Y. C." — Captain Boy-Ed's office. 
Captain Boy-Ed had already told him to erect a 
wireless plant on his ship — the equipment having 
been shipped to the Marina Quezada — and to hire 
a wireless operator. He then handed Suhren a 
German naval code book, a chart with routes 
drawn, and sailing instructions for the South 
Seas, there to await German cruisers. Food sup- 
plies, ordered for the steamer Unit a (which at 
that time had been unable to sail) were wasting 
on the piers at Newport News and Captain Boy- 
Ed ordered them put in the Marina Quezada. 
Two cases of revolvers also were sent to the 
boat. 

Again Suhren went back to the ship and kept 
his wireless operators busy and speeded up the 



36 The German Secret Service in America 

loading of the cargo, which was under the super- 
vision of an employee of the North German Lloyd. 
Needing more money before sailing in December, 
1 91 4, he drew a draft for $1,000 on the Hamburg- 
American Line, wiring Adolf Hachmeister, the 
purchasing agent, to communicate with "Room 
801, 11 Broadway." 

Then trouble arose over the ship's registry. 
Though Suhren insisted that he owned her, a 
corporation in New York whose stockholders 
were Costa Ricans were laying claim to owner- 
ship, for they had christened her and had se- 
cured provisional registration from the Costa Ri- 
can minister in Washington. Permanent regis- 
try, however, required application at Port Limon, 
Costa Rica. So hauling down the Norwegian 
ensign that had fluttered over the ship as the 
Gladstone, Captain Suhren ran up the Costa 
Rican emblem. He had obtained false clearance 
papers stating his destination as Valparaiso. 
They were based upon a false manifest, and he 
sailed for Port Limon. The Costa Rican au- 
thorities declined to give Suhren permanent 
papers, and he found himself master of a ship 
without a flag, and in such status not permitted 
under international law to leave port. He waited 
for a heavy storm and darkness, then quietly 
slipping his anchor, he sped out into the high seas, 



The Raiders at Sea 87 

a pirate. Off Pernambuco he ran up the Nor- 
wegian flag, put into port and got into such diffi- 
culties with the authorities that his ship and he 
were interned. His supplies never reached the 
raiders and Boy- Ed learned of another fiasco. 

The Lorenzo, Thor and Heine were seized at 
sea. The Bangor was captured in the Straits of 
Magellan. Out of twelve shiploads of supplies, 
only some $20,000 worth were ever transshipped 
to German war vessels. This involved a consid- 
erable loss, as the following statement of expendi- 
tures for those vessels made by the Hamburg- 
American Line will show : 

Steamer Total payment 

Thor $1 13,879.72 

Berwind 73,221.85 

Lorenzo 430,182.59 

Heine 288,142.06 

Nepos 1 19,037.60 

Mowinckel 113,367.18 

Unita 67,766.44 

Somerstad 45,826.75 

Pram 55>°53- 2 3 

Craecia 29,143.59 

Macedonia 39J39-98 

Navarra 44,133.50 

Total $1,419,394.49 

Where did the money come from ? The Ham- 



88 The German Secret Service in America 

burg- American Line, under the ante-bellum con- 
tract, placed at Captain Boy-Ed's disposal three 
payments of $500,000 each from the Deutsches 
Bank, Berlin; the Deutsches Bank forwarded 
through Wessells, Kulenkampff & Co., credit for 
$750,000 more. "I followed the instructions of 
Captain Boy-Ed," Kulenkampff testified. "He 
instructed me at different times to pay over cer- 
tain amounts either to banks or firms. I trans- 
ferred $350,000 to the Wells-Fargo Nevada Na- 
tional Bank in San Francisco, $150,000 to the 
North German Lloyd, then $63,000 to the North 
German Lloyd. The balance of $160,000 I 
placed to the credit of the Deutsches Bank with 
Gontard & Co., successors to my former firm. 
That was reduced to about $57,000 by payments 
drawn at Captain Boy-Ed's request to the order 
of the Hamburg- American Line." 

The North German Lloyd was serving as the 
Captain's Pacific operative, which accounts for 
the transfer of the funds to the West. (The same 
line, through its Baltimore agent, Paul Hilken, 
was also cooperating at this time, but not to an 
extent which brought the busy Hilken into promi- 
nence as did his later connection with the mer- 
chant submarine, Deutschland.) Following the 
course of the funds, federal agents eventually 
uncovered the operations of Germans on the Pa- 



The Raiders at Sea 39 

cific coast, and secured the arrest and convictions 
of no less personages than the consular staff in 
San Francisco. 

The steamship Sacramento left San Francisco 
with a water-line cargo of supplies. A firm of 
customs brokers in San Francisco was given a 
fund of $46,000 by the German consulate to pur- 
chase supplies for her ; a fictitious steamship com- 
pany was organized to satisfy the customs offi- 
cials; on September 23 an additional $100,000 
was paid by the Germans for her cargo; a false 
valuation was placed on her cargo, and she was 
cleared on October 3. Two days later Benno 
Klocke and Gustav Traub, members of the crew, 
broke the wireless seals and got into communica- 
tion with the Dresden. Klocke usurped the posi- 
tion of master of the vessel, and steered her to a 
rendezvous on November 8 with the Scharnhorst, 
off Masafueros Island, in the South Pacific; six 
days later she provisioned and coaled the German 
steamship Baden. She reached Valparaiso 
empty. Captain Anderson said he could not help 
the fact that her supplies were swung outboard 
and into the Scharnhorst and Dresden. 

Captain Fred Jebsen, who was a lieutenant in 
the German Naval Reserve, took out a cargo of 
coal, properly bonded in his ship, the Mazatlan, 
for Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico. Off the mouth 



40 The German Secret Service in America 

of Magdalena Bay the Mazatlan met the Leipzig, 
a German cruiser, and the cargo of coal was 
transferred to the battleship. One of Jebsen's 
men, who had signed on as a cook, was an expert 
wireless operator, and he went to the Leipzig with 
three cases of "preserved fruits" — wireless ap- 
paratus forwarded by German agents in Cali- 
fornia. Jebsen, after an attempt to smuggle 
arms into India, which will be discussed later, 
made his way to Germany in disguise, and was 
reported to have been drowned in a submarine. 
The N umber g and Leipzig lay off San Francisco 
for days in August, the former finally entering 
the Golden Gate for the amount of coal allowed 
her under international law. The Olson and 
Mahoney, a steam schooner, was laden with sup- 
plies for the German vessels and prepared to sail, 
but after a considerable controversy with the cus- 
toms officials, was unloaded. 

Perhaps the most bizarre attempt to spirit sup- 
plies to the Imperial navy was that in which the 
little barkentine Retriever figured as heroine. 
Wide publicity was given the announcement that 
she was to be sailed out to sea and used as the 
locale of a motion picture drama. The Govern- 
ment found out, however, that her hull was well 
down with coal, which did not seem vital to the 
scenario, and she was not permitted to leave port. 



The Raiders at Sea 41 

The major portion of Germany's naval strength 
lay corked in the Kiel Canal, where, except for a 
few indecisive sorties, Germany's visible fleet was 
destined to remain for more than three years. 
At the outbreak of war, the Emden, Dresden, 
Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Nurnberg were at 
large in the southern oceans. On November I 
the German cruisers met the British Monmouth, 
Good Hope, Glasgow and Otranto off Coronel, 
the Chilean coast. The Monmouth and Good 
Hope were struck a mortal blow and sunk. The 
Glasgow and Otranto barely escaped. In a battle 
off the Falkland Islands on December 7, as the 
German army was being thrown back from Ypres, 
the Scharnhorst, Leipzig, Gneisenau and Nurn- 
berg were sunk by a reinforced British fleet. 
(Walter Peters, one of the crew of the Leipzig, 
floated about for six hours after the engagement, 
was picked up, made his way to Mexico, and for 
more than three years was employed by a German 
vice-consul in Mexico in espionage in the United 
States. Peters was arrested as a dangerous en- 
emy alien in Crockett, California, in April, 1918.) 
The Dresden and Karlsruhe escaped, and the for- 
mer hid for two months in the fjords of the Straits 
of Magellan. On February 26, 191 5, an Ameri- 
can tourist vessel, the Kroonland, passed east 
through the Straits and into Punta Arenas har- 



42 The German Secret Service in America 

bor, while out of the harbor sneaked the little 
Glasgow, westward bound. The Dresden, after 
the American had passed, had run for the open 
Pacific; the Glasgow, hot on her trail, engaged 
her off the Chilean coast five days later and sank 
her, leaving only the Emden and Karlsruhe at 
large. The Karlsruhe disappeared. 

The last lone member of the pack was hunted 
over the seas for months, and finally was beached, 
but long before her activities became public the 
necessity for supplying the German ships expired, 
from the simple elimination of German ships to 
supply. Captain Boy-Ed's first enterprise had 
been frustrated by the British navy and he turned 
to other and more sinister occupations. Buenz, 
Koetter and Hachmeister were sentenced to eight- 
een months in Atlanta, and Poeppinghaus to a 
year and a day — terms which they did not begin 
to serve until 1918. 1 

1 Dr Buenz' case is an enlightening example of the use made 
by German agents in America of the law's delays. He was 
sentenced in December, 1915, for an offence committed in Sep- 
tember, 1914. He at once appealed his case to the higher courts, 
going freely about meanwhile on bail furnished by the Ham- 
burg American Line. In March, 1918, the Supreme Court of 
the United States, to which his case had finally been pressed, 
denied his appeal. His attorneys at once placed before Presi- 
dent Wilson, through Attorney-General Gregory, a request for 
a respite, or commutation of his sentence, which the Presi- 
dent, on April 23, 1018, denied. Buenz pleaded the frailty of 
his 79 years — which had not prevented him from keeping his 
social engagements while his appeal was pending. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE WIRELESS SYSTEM 

The German Embassy a clearing house — Sayville — 
Germany's knowledge of U. S. wireless — Subsidized elec- 
trical companies — Aid to the raiders — The Emden — The 
Geier — Charles E. Apgar — The German code. 

The coordination of a nation's fighting forces 
depends upon that nation's system of communica- 
tion. In no previous war in the world's history 
has a general staff known more of the enemy's 
plans. We look back almost patronizingly across 
a century to the semaphore which transmitted 
Napoleon's orders from Paris to the Rhine in 
three hours; we can scarcely realize that if the 
report of a scout had ever got through to Gen- 
eral Hooker, warning him that a suspicious 
wagon train had been actually sighted a few miles 
away, Stonewall Jackson's flanking march at 
Chancellorsville would have been checked in its 
first stages. In this greatest of all wars a Brit- 
ish battery silences a German gun within two 
minutes after the allied airman has "spotted" the 
Boche. The air is "Any Man's Land." What 

43 



44 The German Secret Service in America 

lies beyond the hill is no longer the great hazard, 
for the wireless is flashing. 

If the Allied general staffs had been provided 
with X-ray field-glasses, and had trained those 
glasses on a. certain brownstone house in Massa- 
chusetts Avenue, between Fourteenth and Fif- 
teenth Streets, in Washington, they would have 
been interested in the perfection of the German 
system of communication. They would have ob- 
served the secretarial force of the Imperial Em- 
bassy opening and sorting letters from confeder- 
ates throughout the country, many so phrased as 
to be quite harmless, others apparently meaning- 
less. The Embassy served as a clearing-house 
for all German and Allied air messages. 

Long before the war broke out the German 
government had seen the military necessity for a 
complete wireless system. Subsidies were se- 
cretly granted to the largest of the German elec- 
trical manufacturers to establish stations all over 
the globe. Companies were formed in America, 
ostensibly financed with American funds, but on 
plans submitted to German capitalists and 
through them to the German Foreign Office for 
approval. Thus was the Sayville station erected. 
As early as 1909 a German captain, Otto von 
Fossberg, had been sent to America to select a 
site on Long Island for the station. "The Ger- 



The Wireless System 45 

man government is backing the scheme," he told 
a friend, although the venture was publicly sup- 
posed to be under the auspices of the "Atlantic 
Communication Company," in which certain 
prominent German- Americans held stock and of- 
fice. In 191 1 an expert, Fritz von der Woude, 
paid Sayville a visit long enough to install the 
apparatus; he came under strict injunctions not 
to let his mission become generally known. 

Boy-Ed watched the progress of the Sayville 
station with close interest and considerable au- 
thority, and his familiarity with wireless threw 
him into frequent and cordial relationship with 
the United States naval wireless men and the De- 
partment of Commerce. On one occasion the 
Department requested a confidential report from 
a radio inspector of the progress made by foreign 
interests in wireless; the report prepared went 
to Germany before it came to the hands of the 
United States government. Again : the German 
government was informed in 1914 by Boy-Ed in 
Washington that the United States intended to 
erect a wireless station at a certain point in the 
Philippines ; full details, as the Navy Department 
had developed them, were forwarded, and the 
German government immediately directed a large 
electrical manufacturer in Berlin to bid for the 
work. The site the United States had selected 



46 The German Secret Service in America 

was not altogether satisfactory to Germany, for 
some reason, so the German government added 
this delicious touch: a confidential map of the 
Philippines was turned over to the electrical 
house, with orders to submit a plan for the con- 
struction of the American station on a site which 
had been chosen by the German General War 
Staff! 

The Providence Journal claims to have discov- 
ered an interesting German document — probably 
genuine — which reveals the scope of the Teutonic 
wireless project. It was a chart, bearing a rect- 
angle labeled in German with the title of the Ger- 
man Foreign Office. From this "trunk" radiated 
three "branches," each bearing a name, and each 
terminating in the words "Telefunken Co." The 
first branch was labeled "Gesellschaft fiir Draht- 
lose Telegraphie, Berlin"; the second, "Siemens 
& Halske, Siemens-Schuckert-Werke, Berlin"; 
the third, "Allgemeine Elektrizitats-Gesellschaft, 
Berlin." 

From each branch grew still further subdivi- 
sions, labeled with the names of electrical firms or 
agents all over the world, and all subject to the 
direction of the German government. These 
names follow: 

From No. i : Atlantic Communication Co. 
(Sayville), New York; Australasian Wireless 



The Wireless System 47 

Co., Ltd., Sydney (Australia) ; Telefunken East 
Asiatic Wireless Telegraph Co., Ltd., Shanghai; 
Maintz & Co. (of Amsterdam, Holland), Batavia 
(Java) ; Germann & Co. (of Hamburg), Manila; 
B. Grimm & Co., Bangkok; Paetzold & Eppinger, 
Havana; Spiegelthal, La Guayra; Kruger & Co., 
Guayaquil; Brahm & Co., Lima; E. Quicke, Mon- 
tevideo; R. Schulbach, Thiemer & Co. (of Ham- 
burg), Central America; Sesto Sesti, Rome; A. 
D. Zacharion & Cie., Athens; J. K. Dimitrijievic, 
Belgrade. 

From No. 2: Siemens Bros. & Co., Ltd., 
London; Siemens & Halske, Vienna; Siemens & 
Halske, Petrograd; Siemens & Halske (K. G. 
Frank), New York; Siemens-Schuckert-Werke, 
Sofia ; Siemens-Schuckert-Werke, Constantino- 
ple; Siemens-Schuckert-Werke (Dansk Aktsiel- 
skab), Copenhagen; Siemens-Schuckert-Werke 
(Denki Kabushiki Kaishe), Tokio; Siemens- 
Schuckert-Werke (Companhia Brazileira de 
Electricidade), Rio de Janeiro; Siemens-Schuck- 
ert, Ltd., Buenos Ayres; Siemens-Schuckert, 
Ltd., Valparaiso. 

From No. 3: A. E. G. Union Electrique, 
Brussels ; Allgemeine Elektrizitats-Gesellschaf t, 
Basel; A. E. G. Elecktriska Aktiebolaget, Stock- 
holm ; A. E. G. Electricitats Aktieselskabet, Chris- 
tiania; A. E. G. Thomson-Houston Iberica, Ma- 



48 The German Secret Service in America 

drid; A. E. G. Compania Mexicana, Mexico; A. 
E. G. Electrical Company of South Africa, Jo- 
hannesburg. 

The German manufacturers evinced a keen 
interest in the project of a wireless plant in Nica- 
ragua, laying special stress on the point that "per- 
manent stations in this neighborhood" would be 
valuable "if the Panama Canal is fortified." 
From Sayville station the German plan projected 
powerful wireless plants in Mexico, at Para, 
Brazil; at Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana; at Carta- 
gena, Colombia, and at Lima, Peru. A point in 
which Captain H. Retzmann, the German naval 
attache in 191 1, was at one time interested was 
whether signals could be sent to the German fleet 
in the English Channel from America without 
England's interference. German naval wireless 
experts supervised the construction, and although 
the stations were nominally civilian-manned, and 
purely commercial, in reality the operators were 
often men of unusual scientific intellect, whose 
talents were sadly underpaid if they received no 
more than operators' salaries. 

Gradually and quietly, Germany year by year 
spread her system of wireless communication 
over Central and South America, preparing her 
machinery for war. Over her staff of operators 
and mechanics she appointed an expert in the full 



The Wireless System 49 

confidence of the Embassy at Washington, and in 
close contact with Captain Boy-Ed. To the sys- 
tem of German-owned commercial plants in the 
United States he added amateur stations of more 
or less restricted radius, as auxiliary apparatus. 

When the war broke out, and scores of German 
merchantmen were confined to American ports 
by the omnipresence of the British fleet at sea, the 
wireless of the interned ships was added to the 
system. Thus in every port lay a source of infor- 
mation for the Embassy. The United States 
presently ordered the closing of all private wire- 
less stations, and those amateurs who had been 
listening out of sheer curiosity to the air con- 
versation cheerfully took down their antennae. 
Not so, however, a prominent woman in whose 
residence on Fifth Avenue lay concealed a pow- 
erful receiving apparatus. Nor did the in- 
terned ships obey the order : apparatus apparently 
removed was often rigged in the shelter of a fun- 
nel, and operated by current supplied from an 
apparently innocent source. And the secret 
service discovered stations also in the residences 
of wealthy Hoboken Germans, and in a German- 
American "mansion" in Hartford, Connecticut. 

The operators of these stations made their re- 
ports regularly through various channels to the 



50 The German Secret Service in America 

Embassy. There the messages were sorted, and 
it is safe to say that Count von Bernstorff was 
cognizant of the position of every ship on the 
oceans. He was in possession of both the French 
and British secret admiralty codes. In the light 
of that fact, the manoeuvres of the British and 
German fleets in the South Atlantic and Pacific 
became simply a game of chess, Germany follow- 
ing every move of the British fleet under Admiral 
Cradock, knowing the identity of his ships, their 
gun-power, and their speed. When she located 
the Good Hope, Monmouth, Glasgow and Otranto 
off Coronel, Berlin, through von Bernstorff, gave 
Admiral von Spee the word to strike, with the 
results which we have observed: the sinking of 
the Monmouth and Good Hope, and the crippling 
of the Glasgow and Otranto. 

Throughout August, September and October, 
1914, the system operated perfectly. Bernstorff 
and Boy-Ed were confronted with the problem of 
keeping the German fleet alive as long as possible, 
and inflicting as much damage as possible on en- 
emy shipping. Allied merchantmen left port al- 
most with impunity, and were gathered in by Ger- 
man raiders who had been informed from Wash- 
ington of the location of their prey. But the 
defeat off Chile apparently was conclusive proof 
to England that Germany knew her naval code, 



The Wireless System 51 

and the events of November and December indi- 
cate that England changed her code. 

It was while engaged in escort duty to the first 
transport fleet of the Australian Expeditionary 
Force that the Australian crusier Sydney re- 
ceived wireless signals from Cocos Island shriek- 
ing that the Emden was near by. The Emden, 
having been deprived for some time of news of 
enemy ships, had gone there to destroy the wire- 
less station, having in the past three months sunk 
some $12,500,000 of British shipping. Even 
while the island's distress signals were crashing 
out, the Emden had her own wireless busy in an 
effort to drown the call for help, or "jam" the air. 
On the following morning, November 9, the Syd- 
ney came up with the enemy. A sharp action 
followed. The Sydney's gunfire was accurate 
enough to cause the death of 7 officers and 108 
men; her own losses were 4 killed and 12 
wounded; the Emden fled, ran aground on North 
Keeling Island, one of the Cocos group, and ulti- 
mately became a total wreck. 

In the same month the cruiser Geier fled the 
approach of the British and found refuge in 
Honolulu harbor. Her commander, Captain 
Karl Grasshof, made the mistake of keeping a 
diary. That document, which later fell into the 
hands of the Navy Intelligence Service, revealed 



52 The German Secret Service in America 

a complete disrespect for the hospitality which the 
American government afforded the refugees. 
The Geier' s band used to strike up for an after- 
noon concert, and under cover of the music, the 
wireless apparatus sent out messages to raiders 
at sea or messages in English so phrased as to 
start rumors of trouble between Japan and the 
United States. The Geier was the source of a 
rumor to the effect that Japanese troops had 
landed in Mexico; the Geier gave what circula- 
tion she could to a report that Germans in the 
United States were planning an invasion of Can- 
ada and was ably assisted in this effort by George 
Rodiek, German consul at Honolulu; the Geier 
caught all trans-Pacific wireless messages, and in- 
tercepted numerous United States government 
despatches. Captain Grasshof also spread a re- 
port quoting an American submarine commander 
as saying he would "like to do something to those 
Japs outside" (referring \o the Japanese Pacific 
patrol) provided he (the American commander) 
and the German could reach an agreement. This 
report Grasshof attributed to von Papen, and 
later retracted, admitting that it was a lie. 
Grasshof 's courier to the consulate in San Fran- 
cisco was A. V. Kircheisen, a quartermaster on 
the liner China, a German secret service agent 
bearing the number K-17. Kircheisen frequently 



The Wireless System 53 

used the China's wireless to send German mes- 
sages. 

On December 8 occurred the engagement off 
the Falklands, which resulted in the defeat of the 
German fleet. The Karlsruhe within a short 
time gave up her aimless wanderings and disap- 
peared. In February the Glasgow avenged her- 
self on the Dresden, and the Prim Eitel Fried- 
rich and the Kronprim Wilhelm fled into the se- 
curity of Hampton Roads for the duration of 
war. 

The United States' suspicions had been aroused 
by the activity of the German wireless plants, but 
the arm of the law did not remove at once the 
German operators at certain commercial stations. 
They were the men who despatched communica- 
tions to Berlin and to the raiders. Interspersed 
in commercial messages they sprinkled code 
phrases, words, numbers, a meaningless and inno- 
cent jargon. The daily press bulletin issued to 
all ships at sea was an especially adaptable vehi- 
cle for this practice, as any traveler who has been 
forced to glean his news from one of these bulle- 
tins will readily appreciate. There were Ameri- 
cans shrewd enough, however, to become exceed- 
ingly suspicious of this superficially careless send- 
ing, and their suspicions were confirmed through 
the invention of another shrewd American, 



54 The German Secret Service in America 

Charles E. Apgar. He combined the principles 
of the phonograph and the wireless in such a way 
as to record on a wax disc the dots and dashes 
of the message, precisely as it came through the 
receiver. The records could be studied and ana- 
lyzed at leisure. And the United States govern- 
ment has studied them. 

At three o'clock every morning, the great wire- 
less station at Nauen, near Berlin, uttered a hash 
of language into the ether. It was apparently 
not directed to any one in particular, nor did it 
contain any known coherence. Unless the oper- 
ator in America wore a DeForest audian detector, 
which picks up waves from a great distance, he 
could not have heard it, and certainly during the 
early part of the war he paid no attention to it. 
The United States decided, however, that it 
might be well to eavesdrop, and so for over two 
years every utterance from Nauen was tran- 
scribed and filed away, or run off on the phono- 
graph, in the hope that repetition might reveal 
the code. Until the code was discovered else- 
where, the phonographic records told no tales, 
but then the State Department found that it had 
a priceless library of Prussian impudence. 

The diplomatic code was a dictionary, its pages 
designated by serial letters, its words by serial 
numbers. Thus the message 



The Wireless System 55 

"12-B-15-C-7" 

signified the twelfth and fifteenth words on the 
second page, and the seventh word on the third 
page. This particular dictionary was one of a 
rare edition. 

To complement the diplomatic code the 
Deutches Bank, the German Foreign Office, and 
their commercial representatives, Hugo Schmidt 
and Dr. Albert, had agreed upon an arbitrary 
code which proved one of the most difficult which 
the American authorities have ever had to deci- 
pher. Solution would have been impossible with- 
out some of the straight English or German con- 
firmations which followed by mail, but as most 
of these documents were lost or destroyed, the 
deciphering had to be done by astute construction 
of testimony taken from Schmidt as late as the 
fall of 191 7. He had made the work doubly dif- 
ficult by burning the cipher key and most of his 
important papers in the furnace of the German 
Club. 

Simple phrases, such as might readily pass any 
censor without arousing suspicion, passed fre- 
quently through Sayville station. The message 
"Expect father to-morrow" meant "The political 
situation between America and Germany grows 
worse. It is imperative that you take care of 



56 The German Secret Service in America 

your New York affairs." "Depot" meant "Se- 
curities"; "Depot Pritchard" meant "Securities 
to be held in Germany"; "Depot Cooper" meant 
"Securities to be forwarded to some neutral coun- 
try in Europe." Schmidt himself had the follow- 
ing aliases: "John Maley," "Roy Woolen," 
"Sidney Pickford," "George Brewster," "175 
Congress Street, Brooklyn," "James Frasier," or 
"Andrew Brodie." Dr. Albert was mentioned 
as "John Herbinsen," "Howard Ackley," "Leon- 
ard Hadden," or "Donald Yerkes." James W. 
Gerard, the American ambassador at Berlin, was 
"Wilbur McDonald"; America was "Fremessi" 
or "Alfred Lipton." To throw any suspicion off 
the scent, the phrase "Hughes recovered" was 
translatable simply as "agreed," whereas "Percy 
died" meant "disagreed." Amounts of money 
were to be multiplied by one thousand. 

This cipher code, so far as it had any system 
at all, showed a skilful choice of arbitrary proper 
names, than which there is nothing less sugges- 
tive or significant when the name is backed up by 
no known or discoverable personality. These 
names met two requirements: they carefully 
avoided any names of personages, and they 
sounded English or American. Following is a 
table of the commoner symbols used: 



The Wireless System 



57 



Code 
Alcott 
Andeo 

John Hazel : Chapman ; 
Thos. Hadley 
Pythagoras Errflint 

Lawrence McKay 

John Hastings; Fred 
Holden; Wm. Lounsbury 
Flagside ; Chas. Hall 
Henry Galloway 
Frenchlike ; Blake 
Flammigere 
Percy Bloomfield 
Gobber Milbank or 
John Childs 
George Mallery 

Charles Thurston: 
Caffney Richard 
Ernest Whiskard 
Frederick Chappell, 
Walter Harris; Edmund 

Hutton 
Mills Edgar 
Albert Hardwood 
Herbert Hastings, 
Langman Howard, 
Luckett Ernest 
Eversleigh 

Sidney Farmer and others 
Francis Hawkins 
Francis Manuel; 
Edward Gary 
Fleshquake 
Clarence Hadden 
Floezanbel 
Floezuise 
Wm. Gerome 
Fluitkoker 



Translation 
Hugo Reisinger 
Payments are 

G. Amsinck & Co. 
Argentine Finance 

Minister 
Austrian Ambassador at 

Washington. 



Bankers Trust Co. 

Belgium 

Berlin 

Bethlehem Steel Co. 

Reichsbank 

Capt. Boy-Ed 

British Ambassador at Wash- 
ington 

British Government 
Central Bank of Norway 
The Submarine Deutschland 

Chase National Bank 
Dr. Dernberg 
Empire Trust Co. 



Equitable Trust Co. 

New York 

Speyer & Co. 

Farmers Loan & Trust Co. 

German Government 
Kuhn, Loeb & Co. 
First National Bank 
George J. Gould 
J. P. Morgan 
J. P. Morgan & Co. 
Wm. Barclay Parsons 



58 The German Secret Service in America 



Code 
Fleuxerimus 

Fogarizers 
John Hayward 
Franklin Giltrap 

Theodore Hooper 

15 Code names represented 

the 
Paul Overton ; Robt. 

Hopkins 
George Hedding 

Hugh Sturges 
Clarence Marsh 

Howard Howe 
Herbert Miller 
Andrew Mills 

Theodore Mitchell 
Robert Moffatt 
Frank Monroe 
Walter Montgomery- 
Dolling 

Robert London 
Steven Morgan 
Frank Mountcastle 

Steven Lawson 
Gafento 



Translation 

High Official of Bethlehem 

Steel Co. 
Chas. M. Schwab 
Norwegian Government 
Hamburg- American 

Line 
Capt. von Papen 

Guaranty Trust Co. 

Hanover Nat. Bank 
Standard Mercantile 

Agency 
Paul Hilken (Deutschland) 
Japanese Ambassador at 

Washington 
Irving Nat. Bank 
President of U. S. 
Secretary of Commerce and 

Labor 
Secretary of Agriculture 
Secretary of State 
Secretary of Treasury 
Secretary of Navy 
London 

North German Lloyd 
United States Congress 
The name of the Deutsches 

Bank is not to be mentioned 
Royal Bank of Canada 
Toluol (High explosive) 



The chief significance of the discovery of the 
two codes is their conclusive proof that while von 
Bernstorff was protesting to the American gov- 
ernment that he could not get messages through 
to Berlin, nor replies from the foreign office, he 
was actually in daily, if not hourly, communica j 



The Wireless System 59 

tion with his superiors. Messages were sent out 
by his confidential operators under the very eyes 
of the American naval censors. After the break 
of diplomatic relations with Berlin, in February, 
191 7, the authorities set to work decoding the 
messages, and the State Department from time to 
time issued for publication certain of the more 
brutal proofs of Germany's violation of Ameri- 
can neutrality. The ambassador and his Wash- 
ington establishment had served for two years 
and a half as the "central exchange" of German 
affairs in the western world. After his depart- 
ure communication from German spies here was 
handicapped only by the time required to forward 
information to Mexico ; from that point to Berlin 
air conversation continued uninterrupted. 



CHAPTER V 

MILITARY VIOLENCE 

The plan to raid Canadian ports — The first Welland 
Canal plot — Von Papen, von der Goltz and Tauscher — 
The project abandoned — Goltz's arrest — The Tauscher 
trial — Hidden arms — Louden's plan of invasion. 

Underneath the even surface of American life 
seethed a German volcano, eating at the upper 
crust, occasionally cracking it, and not infre- 
quently bursting a great gap. When an eruption 
occurred, America stopped work for a moment, 
stared in surprise, sometimes in horror, at the 
external phenomena, discussed them for a few- 
days, then hurried back to work. More often 
than not it saw nothing sinister even in the phe- 
nomena. 

Less than ten hours from German headquar- 
ters in New York lay Canada, one of the richest 
possessions of Germany's bitter enemy England. 
Captain von Papen had not only full details of all 
points of military importance in the United 
States, but had made practical efforts to utilize 

60 



Military Violence 61 

them. He knew where his reservists could be 
found in America. When the Government, 
shortly after the outbreak of war, forbade the 
recruiting of belligerents within its boundaries, 
and then refused to issue American passports for 
the protection of soldiers on the way to their com- 
mands, Captain von Papen planned to mobilize 
and employ a German army on American soil in 
no less pretentious an enterprise than a military 
invasion of the Dominion. 

The first plan was attributed to a loyal German 
named Schumacher, whose ambiguous address 
was "Eden Bower Farm, Oregon." He outlined 
in detail to von Papen the feasibility of obtaining 
a number of powerful motor-boats, to be manned 
by German-American crews, and loaded with 
German-American rifles and machine guns. 
From the ports on the shores of the Great Lakes 
he considered it practicable to journey under 
cover of darkness to positions which would com- 
mand the waterfronts of Toronto, Sarnia, Wind- 
sor and Kingston, Ontario, find the-cities defense- 
less, and precipitate upon them a fair storm of 
bullets. A few Canadian lives might be lost, 
which did not matter ; an enormous hue and cry 
would be raised to keep the Canadian troops at 
home to guard the back door. 

Von Papen entertained the plan seriously, and 



62 The German Secret Service in America 

submitted it to Count von Bernstorff, who for 
obvious diplomatic reasons did not care to sponsor 
open violence when its proponent's references 
were unreliable, its actual reward was at best 
doubtful, and when subtle violence was equally 
practicable. Von Papen then produced an alter- 
native project. 

Cutting through the promontory which sepa- 
rates Lake Erie from the western end of Lake 
Ontario runs the Welland Canal, through which 
all shipping must pass to avoid Niagara Falls. 
This waterway is one of Canada's dearest proper- 
ties, and is no mean artery of supply from the 
great grain country of the Northwest. 

Its economic importance, however, was second- 
ary in the German mind to the psychological effect 
upon Canada which a dynamite calamity to the 
Canal would certainly cause. The first expedi- 
tionary force of Canadian troops was training 
frantically at Valcartier, Quebec. They must be 
kept at home. Whether or not the idea origin- 
ated with Captain von Papen is of little conse- 
quence (it may be safely assumed that Berlin had 
long had plans for such an enterprise) ; the fact 
is that it devolved upon him as military com- 
mander to crystallize thought in action. The 
plot is ascribed to "two Irishmen, prominent 
members of Irish associations, who had both 



Military Violence 63 

fought during the Irish rebellion," and was to 
include destruction of the main railway junctions 
and the grain elevators in the vicinity of Toronto. 
The picturesque renegade German spy com- 
monly known as Horst von der Goltz is respon- 
sible for the generally accepted version of inci- 
dents which followed his first interview with von 
Papen on August 22 at the German Consulate in 
New York. He was sent to Baltimore under the 
assumed name of Bridgeman H. Taylor, with a 
letter to the German Consul there, Karl Lued- 
eritz, calling for whatever cooperation Goltz 
might need. He was to recruit accomplices from 
the crew of a German ship then lying at the North 
German Lloyd docks in the Patapsco River. 
With a man whom he had hired in New York, 
Charles Tucker, alias "Tuchhaendler," he visited 
the ship and selected his men. He then returned 
to New York, where Papen placed three more 
men at his disposal, one of them being A. A. 
Fritzen, of Brooklyn, a discharged purser on a 
Russian liner ; another Frederick Busse, an "im- 
porter," with offices in the World Building, New 
York; and the third man Constantine Covani, a 
private detective, of New York. After a few 
days the sailors from Baltimore reported for 
duty, but were sent back, as Goltz noticed that his 
movements were being watched. 



64 The German Secret Service in America 

Papen sent Goltz to Captain Tauscher's office 
at 320 Broadway for explosives. On September 
5, Captain Tauscher ordered 300 pounds of 60 
per cent, dynamite to be delivered by the E. I. 
du Pont de Nemours Company to Mr. Bridgeman 
Taylor. In a motor-boat Goltz applied at a du 
Pont barge near Black Tom Island and the Statue 
of Liberty and took away his three hundred 
pounds of dynamite in suitcases. The little craft 
made its way up the river to 146th Street. The 
conspirators then carried their burden to the Ger- 
man Club in Central Park South and later in a 
taxicab to Goltz's home, where it was stored with 
a supply of revolvers and electrical apparatus for 
exploding the charges. 

A passport for facile entrance into Canada had 
been applied for by one of Luederitz's henchmen 
in Baltimore in the name of "Bridgeman Taylor," 
and had been forwarded in care of Karl W. Buck, 
who lived at 843 West End Avenue, New York. 
With this guerdon of American protection Goltz 
set out for Buffalo about September 10 — the last 
day of the Battle of the Marne — Busse and Frit- 
zen carrying the dynamite and apparatus, and 
Covani, as Goltz naively related, "attending to 
me." He found rooms at 198 Delaware Avenue, 
in the heart of Buffalo. Tie learned of the ter- 
rain for the enterprise from a German of myste- 



y. 




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< . '/„,„ „„/„ „ r// ,„„„/,„„/,/„ 
'/m/,///„ './,/■"/>»'»/>/ //«/' 
a///„ y«/p ,/ '/L,/,,,,,//,-,, ' 
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ms-ix;;: - x, 




AsffttrMf jy/4* ¥U,l,rS 



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Passport given to Horst von der Goltz under the 
alias of Bridgeman H. Taylor 



Military Violence 65 

rious occupation, who had lived in Buffalo for 
several years. Within a few days Goltz and his 
companions moved on to Niagara Falls — a move 
made easier by an exchange of telegraphic com- 
munications between Papen and himself. It is 
only necessary to quote, from the British Secret 
Service report to Parliament, those messages 
which Goltz received from the attache, or "Stef- 
fens," as Papen chose to sign himself: 

New York, N. Y. Sept. 15, 14 
Mr. Taylor, 198 Delaware Ave. Buffalo 

Sent money today. Consult lawyer John Ryan six 
hundred thirteen Mutual Life Building Buffalo not later 
than seventeenth. 

Steffens, 112 Central Park South 

12.45 p. 

New York, N. Y. Sept. 16-14 
Mr. Taylor, 198 Delaware Avenue, Bflo. 
Ryan got money and instructions. 

Steffens, 
1. 14 p. 

Goltz and Covani "consulted" Mr. Ryan, who 
had received $200 on September 16 from Papen 
through Knauth, Nachod & Kuhne. 

Then Goltz claimed that he made two aeroplane 
flights over Niagara Falls, and "reconnoitered 
the ground." Something went wrong, for after 
a week arrived the following telegrams : 



66 The German Secret Service in America 

New York, N. Y. Sept. 24-14. 
John T. Ryan, 613 Mutual Life Bldg. Buffalo. 

Please instruct Taylor cannot do anything more for 
him. 

Steffens. 

12:51 p. 

New York, N. Y. Sept. 26-14. 
Mr. Taylor, care Western Union, Niagara Falls, N. Y. 

Do what you think best. Did you receive dollars two 
hundred 

Ryan 
945 A. 

These messages are open to several construc- 
tions. They do not contradict Goltz's claim that 
he "learned that the first contingent of Canadian 
troops had left the camp." They could indicate 
that his chief was not fully satisfied with his tech- 
nique. Perhaps the most intriguing feature of 
the telegrams is their presence in a safe-deposit 
vault in Holland when Goltz was captured months 
later. It may be assumed that if (as he main- 
tained) he was being watched constantly in Buf- 
falo by the United States Secret Service, one of 
the first things he would have done is to destrov 
any messages received. We leave the reader to 
decide — after he has traced Goltz's history a step 
or two further. 

Whatever the occasion, the Welland enterprise 



Military Violence 67 

was dismissed; the dynamite was left with an 
aviator in Niagara Falls ; Fritzen and Busse were 
discharged from service, and Covani and Goltz 
left for New York. In a letter dated December 
7, from Buffalo, poor Busse wrote to Edmund 
Pavenstedt, at 45 William Street, New York, 
pleading that he had been left without any money 
in Niagara Falls; that he had written to von 
Papen and had been compelled to wait two weeks 
before he got $20. His expenses had accumu- 
lated during the fortnight, he could not find work, 
he even had sold his overcoat, and he begged 
Pavenstedt to send him money to come back to 
New York. "My friend Fritzen/' he added, 
"was sent back some weeks ago by a gentleman 
in the German-American Alliance. ... I would 
appreciate anything you can do for me, especially 
since I enlisted in such a task . . . Von Papen 
signs himself Stevens." 

The military attache was frankly disgusted at 
the failure of the undertaking. Goltz claims to 
have explained everything satisfactorily, and to 
have been given presently a new commission — 
that of returning to Germany for further instruc- 
tions from Abteilung III of the General Staff, 
the intelligence department of the Empire. 

On October 8 Goltz sailed for Europe, armed 
with his false passport, and a letter of introduc- 



68 The German Secret Service in America 

tion to the German Consul-General in Genoa. 
He reached Berlin safely, received his orders, 
returned to England, and was arrested on Novem- 
ber 13. The public was not informed of his ar- 
rest, yet in Busse's letter from Buffalo of Decem- 
ber 7, he mentioned Goltz's capture in London. 
News traveled fast in German channels. 

Examination of his papers resulted in a pro- 
tracted imprisonment, which daily grew more 
painful, and finally Goltz agreed to turn state's 
evidence against his former confreres. It was 
not until March 31, 1916, that Captain Tauscher 
was interrupted at his office by the arrival of 
agents of the Department of Justice, who placed 
him under arrest. He was held in $25,000 bail 
on a charge of having furthered a plot to blow up 
the Welland Canal. 

Meanwhile Goltz's confession had implicated 
him in something more than a casual acquaint- 
ance with the plot; stubs in the check-book of 
Captain von Papen established payment made by 
the latter to Tauscher of $31.13, which happened 
to be the exact total of two bills from the du Pont 
Company to Captain Tauscher for dynamite and 
hemp fuses delivered on September 5 and 13 to 
"Bridgeman Taylor." Prior to the trial in June 
and July, 191 6, Tauscher offered to plead guilty 
for a promise of the maximum fine without im- 



Military Violence 69 

prisonment, but his offer was rejected by the 
United States attorneys. A letter was intro- 
duced as testimony to his good character from 
General Crozier, the then head of the Ordnance 
Department at Washington. Goltz made an un- 
impressive witness, and Captain Tauscher, pro- 
testing his innocence as a mere intermediary in 
the affair, was acquitted of the charge. 

Of the smaller fry Fritzen was arrested in Los 
Angeles in March, 1917. He stated then to of- 
ficers that he had made trips to Cuba after the 
outbreak of war in 1914, had traveled over 
southern United States in two attempts to reach 
Mexico City, and had finally found employment 
on a ranch. He was sentenced to 18 months in 
prison. Tucker and Busse were witnesses at the 
Tauscher trial and were treated leniently. Co- 
vani turned from his previous occupation as 
hunter to that of quarry, and was not appre- 
hended. 

Information gathered by the Federal authori- 
ties and produced in court proved that Captain 
von Papen and reservist German army officers in 
the country planned a second mobilization of Ger- 
man reservists to attack Canadian points. That 
the project was seriously considered for a time is 
evidenced by a note in the diary found on the 
commander of the Geier, in Honolulu, in which 



70 The German Secret Service in America 

he said that the German consul in Honolulu, 
George Rodiek, had had orders from the San 
Francisco consulate to circulate a report to that 
effect. Hundreds of thousands of rifles and hun- 
dreds of rounds of ammunition that were to be 
available for German reservists were stored in 
New York, Chicago and other cities on the bor- 
der. Many a German-American brewery con- 
cealed in the shadows of its storehouses crates of 
arms and ammunition. Tauscher stored in 200 
West Houston Street, New York, on June 21, 
191 5, 2,000 45-calibre Colt revolvers, 10 Colt 
automatic guns, 7,000 Springfield rifles, 3,000,000 
revolver cartridges and 2,500,000 rifle cartridges. 
When the New York police questioned him about 
this arsenal, he said he had purchased them in 
job lots, for speculation. As a matter of fact 
they had been intended for use in India, but had 
been diverted on the Pacific coast and returned 
to New York. 

A bolder version of the plot of invasion came 
from Max Lynar Louden, known to the Federal 
authorities as "Count Louden." He was a man 
of nondescript reputation, who had secret com- 
munications with the Germans in the early part 
of the war. He confessed that he was party to 
a scheme for the quick mobilization and equip- 
ment of a full army of German reservists. Lou- 



Military Violence 71 

den was consistently annoying to the Secret Serv- 
ice in that he refused openly to violate the neu- 
trality laws, but the moment the authorities 
learned of the fact that he was supposed to have 
two or three wives they made an investigation 
which resulted in his imprisonment. His story, 
if not altogether reliable, is interesting. 

Through German-American interests, the 
plans were made in 1914, he said, and a fund of 
$16,000,000 was subscribed to carry out the de- 
tails. Secret meetings were held in New York, 
Buffalo, Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee, and 
other large cities, and at these meetings it was 
agreed that a force of 150,000 reservists was 
available to seize and hold the Welland Canal, 
strategic points and munitions centers. 

"We had it arranged," said Louden, "to send 
our men from large cities following announce- 
ments of feasts and conventions, and I think we 
could have obtained enough to carry out our 
plans had it not been for my arrest on the charge 
of bigamy. The troops were to have been divided 
into four divisions, with six sections. The first 
two divisions were to have assembled at Silver- 
creek, Mich. The first was to have seized the 
Welland Canal. The second was to have taken 
Wind Mill Point, Ontario. The third was to go 
from Wilson, N. Y., to Port Hope. The fourth 



72 The German Secret Service in America 

was to proceed from Watertown, N. Y., to Kings- 
ton, Ontario. The fifth was to assemble near 
Detroit and land near Windsor. The sixth sec- 
tion was to leave Cornwall and take possession of 
Ottawa. 

"It had been planned to buy or charter eighty- 
four excursion and small boats to use in getting 
into Canada. All of the equipment was to have 
been put aboard the boats, and when quarters for 
120,000 men had been found it would have been 
easy to continue the expedition. The German 
government was cognizant of the plan and maps, 
etc., were to have been furnished by the German 
government. A representative of the British 
Ambassador offered $20,000 for our plans." 

But none of the first German-American expe- 
ditionary forces left for their destinations. 
Their project was innocently foiled by Amelia 
Wendt, Rose O'Brien and Nella Florence Allen- 
dorf. These ladies were Louden's wives. 



CHAPTER VI 

PAUL KOENIG 

Justice and Metzler — Koenig's personality — von Pa- 
pen's checks — The "little black book" — Telephone codes 
— Shadowing — Koenig's agents — His betrayal. 

In a narrative which attempts so far as possi- 
ble to proceed chronologically, it becomes neces- 
sary at this point to introduce Paul Koenig. For, 
on September 15, 1914, he sent an Irishman, 
named Edmund Justice, who had been a dock 
watchman, and one Frederick Metzler to Quebec 
for information of the number of Canadian 
troops in training. On September 18 Koenig left 
New York and met Metzler in Portland, Maine. 
He received his report, and on September 25 was 
in Burlington, Vt, where he conferred with Jus- 
tice, and learned that the two spies had inspected 
the fortifications in Quebec, and had visited the 
training camps long enough to estimate the num- 
ber and condition of the men. (Their informa- 
tion Koenig reported at once to von Papen, and 
it is possible that it dictated Papen's recall of 

Goltz from Buffalo the next day.) 

73 



74 The German Secret Service in America 

Who was Paul Koenig? His underlings knew 
him as "P. K.," and called him the "bull-headed 
Westphalian" behind his back. He had a dozen 
aliases, among them Wegenkamp, Wagener, 
Kelly, Winter, Perkins, Stemler, Rectorberg, 
Boehm, Kennedy, James, Smith, Murphy, and 
W. T. Munday. 

He was a product of the "Kaiser's Own" — the 
Hamburg-American Line. He had been a detec- 
tive in the service of the Atlas Line, a subsidiary 
of the Hamburg-American, and for some years 
before the war was superintendent of the latter 
company's police. In that capacity he bossed a 
dozen men, watching the company's laborers and 
investigating any complaints made to the line. 
His work threw him into constant contact with 
sailors, tug-skippers, wharf-rats, longshoremen, 
and dive-keepers of the lowest type, and there 
was little of the criminal life of the waterfront 
that he had not seen. 

He had arms like an ape, and the bodily 
strength of one. His expression suggested craft, 
ferocity, and brutality. Altogether his powerful 
frame and lurid vocabulary made him a figure 
to avoid or respect. Waterfront society did both 
— and hated him as well. 

Von Papen saw in Koenig's little police force 
the nucleus of just such an organization as he 




Copyright^ International Him Service 



Paul Koenig, the Hamburg-American emlpoye, who supplied 
and directed agents of German violence in America 



Paul Koenig 75 

needed. The Line put Koenig at the attache's 
disposal in August, 191 4, and straightway von 
Papen connected certain channels of information 
with Koenig's own system. He supplied reserv- 
ists for special investigations and crimes, and 
presently Koenig became in effect the foreman 
of a large part of Germany's secret service in the 
East. As his activities broadened, he was called 
upon to execute commissions for Bernstorff, Al- 
bert, Dr. Dumba, the Austro-Hungarian ambas- 
sador, and Dr. Alexander von Nuber, the Aus- 
trian consul in New York, as well as for the at- 
taches themselves. He acted as their guard on 
occasion, served as their confidential messenger, 
and made himself generally useful in investiga- 
tion work. 

The guilt-stained check-book of the military 
attache contained these entries: 

March 29, 191 5. Paul Koenig (Secret Service Bill) 

$509.11 

April 18, Paul Koenig (Secret Service Bill) $90.94 

May 11, Paul Koenig (Secret Service) $66.71 

July 16, Paul Koenig (Compensation for F. J. Busse) 

$150.00 

August 4, Paul Koenig (5 bills secret service) $118.92 

Those entries represent only the payments made 
Koenig by check for special work done for von 
Papen. Koenig received his wages from the 



76 The German Secret Service in America 

Line. When he performed work for any one 
else he rendered a special bill. This necessitated 
his itemizing his expenditures, and this Germanly 
thorough and thoroughly German system of petty 
accounting enabled our secret service later to 
trace his activities with considerable success. 
Koenig and von Papen used to haggle over his 
bills — on one occasion the attache felt he was 
being overcharged, and accordingly deducted a 
half-dollar from the total. 

"P. K." also had an incriminating book — a 
carefully prepared notebook of his spies and of 
persons in New York, Boston and other cities 
who were useful in furnishing him information. 
In another book he kept a complete record of the 
purpose and cost of assignments on which he sent 
his men. He listed in its pages the names of 
several hundred persons — army reservists, Ger- 
man-Americans and Americans, clerks, scientists 
and city and Federal employees — showing that 
his district was large and that his range for get- 
ting information and for supervising other pro- 
German propaganda was broad. For his own 
direct staff he worked out a system of numbers 
and initials to be used in communication. The 
numbers he changed at regular intervals and a 
system of progression was devised by which each 
agent would know when his number changed. 



Paul Koenig 77 

He provided them with suitable aliases. These 
men had alternative codes for writing letters and 
for telephone communication to be changed au- 
tomatically by certain fixed dates. 

Always alert for spies upon himself, Koenig 
suspected that his telephone wire was tapped 
and that his orders were being overheard. So 
he instructed his men in various code words. If 
he told an agent to meet him "at 5 o'clock at South 
Ferry" he meant: "Meet me at 7 o'clock at 
Forty-second Street and Broadway." His sus- 
picions were well-grounded, for his wire was 
tapped, and Koenig led the men who were spying 
on him an unhappy dance. 

For example: he would receive a call on the 
telephone and would direct his agent, at the other 
end of the wire, to meet him in fifteen minutes.at 
Pabst's, Harlem. It is practically impossible to 
make the journey from Koenig's office in the 
Hamburg- American Building to 125th Street in 
a quarter of an hour. After a time his watch- 
ers learned that "Pabst's, Harlem" meant Bor- 
ough Hall, Brooklyn. 

He never went out in the daytime without one 
or two of his agents trailing him to see whether 
he was being shadowed. Pie used to turn a cor- 
ner suddenly and stand still so that an American 
detective following came unexpectedly face to 



78 The German Secret Service in America 

face with him and betrayed his identity. Koe- 
nig would laugh heartily and pass on. Thus he 
came to know many agents of the Department 
of Justice and many New York detectives. 
When he started out at night he usually had 
three of his own men follow him and by a pre- 
arranged system of signals inform him if any 
strangers were following him. 

The task of keeping watch of Koenig's move- 
ments required astute guessing and tireless work 
on the part of the New York police. So elusive 
did he become that it was necessary for Captain 
Tunney to evolve a new system of shadowing him 
in order to keep him in sight without betraying 
that he was under surveillance. One detective, 
accordingly, would be stationed several blocks 
away and would start out ahead of Koenig. 
The "front shadow" was signaled by his confed- 
erates in the rear whenever Koenig turned a cor- 
ner, so that the man in front might dart down 
a cross-street and manoeuvre to keep ahead of 
him. If Koenig boarded a street car the man 
ahead would hail the car several blocks beyond, 
thus avoiding suspicion. In more than one in- 
stance detectives in the rear, guessing that he 
was about to take a car, would board it several 
blocks before it got abreast of Koenig. His 



Paul Koenig 79 

alertness kept Detectives Barnitz, Coy, Terra, 
and Corell on edge for months. 

It was impossible to overhear direct conversa- 
tion between Koenig and any man to whom he 
was giving instructions. Some of his workers 
he never permitted to meet him at all, but when 
he kept a rendezvous it was in the open, in the 
parks in broad daylight, or in a moving-picture 
theatre, or in the Pennsylvania Station, or the 
Grand Central Terminal. There he could make 
sure that nobody was eavesdropping. If he met 
an agent in the open for the first time he gave him 
some such command at this : 

"Be at Third Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street 
at 2 :30 to-morrow afternoon beside a public tele- 
phone booth there. When the telephone rings 
answer it." 

The man would obey. On the minute the tele- 
phone would ring and the man would lift the 
receiver. A strange voice told him to do cer- 
tain things — either a definite assignment, or in- 
structions to be at a similar place on the follow- 
ing day to receive a message. Or he might be 
told to meet another man, who would give him 
money and further orders. The voice at the 
other end of the wire spoke from a public tele- 
phone booth and was thus reasonably sure that 
the wire was not tapped. 



80 The German Secret Service in America 

And Koenig trusted no man. He never sent 
an agent out on a job without detailing another 
man to shadow that man and report back to him 
in full the operations of the agent and of any 
persons whom he might deal with. He was bru- 
tally severe in his insistence that his men do ex- 
actly what he told them without using their own 
initiative. 

Koenig had spies on every big steamship pier. 
He had eavesdroppers in hotels, and on busy 
telephone switchboards. He employed porters, 
window-cleaners, bank clerks, corporation em- 
ployees and even a member of the Police Depart- 
ment. 

This last, listed in his book as "Special Agent 
A. S.," was Otto F. Mottola, a detective in the 
warrant squad. The notebook revealed Mottola 
as "Antonio Marino," an alias later changed to 
Antonio Salvatore. Evidence was produced at 
Mottola's trial at Police Headquarters that Koe- 
nig paid him for investigating a passenger who 
sailed on the Bergensfjord; that he often called 
up Mottola, asked questions, and received an- 
swers which Koenig's stenographer took down 
in shorthand. Through him Koenig sought to 
keep closely informed of developments at Police 
Headquarters in the inquiry being made by the 
police into the activities of the Germans. Mot- 



Paul Koemg 81 

tola was dismissed from the force because of 
false statements made to his superiors when they 
questioned him about Koenig. 

Koenig' s very caution was the cause of his 
undoing. The detectives who shadowed him 
learned that he "never employed the same man 
more than once," which meant simply that he 
was careful to place no subordinate in a position 
where blackmail and exposure might be too easy. 
To this fact they added another trifling observa- 
tion; they noticed that as time went on he was 
seen less in the company of one George Fuchs, 
a relative with whom he had been intimate early 
in the war. They cultivated the young man's 
acquaintance to the extent that he finally burst 
out with a recitation of his grievances against 
Koenig, and betrayed him to the authorities. 

"P. K." was defiant always. "They did get 
Dr. Albert's portfolio," he said one day, "but 
they won't get mine. I won't carry one." 



CHAPTER VII 

FALSE PASSPORTS 

Hans von Wedell's bureau — The traffic in false pass- 
ports — Carl Ruroede — Methods of forgery — Adams' coup 
— von Wedell's letter to von Bernstorff — Stegler — Lody 
— Berlin counterfeits American passports — Von Bree- 
chow. 

Throughout August, 1914, it was compara- 
tively easy for Germans in America who wished 
to respond to the call of the Fatherland to leave 
American shores. A number of circumstances 
tended swiftly to make it more hazardous. The 
British were in no mind to permit an influx of 
reservists to Germany while they could block- 
ade Germany. The cordon tightened, and soon 
every merchant ship was stopped at sea by a 
British patrol and searched for German suspects. 
German spies here took refuge in the protection 
afforded by an American passport. False pass- 
ports were issued by the State Department in 
considerable quantities during the early weeks 
of war — issued unwittingly, of course, for the 

82 



False Passports 88 

applicant in most cases underwent no more than 
the customary peace-time examination. 

We have already seen that von der Goltz easily 
secured a passport. The details of his applica- 
tion were these: Karl A. Luederitz, the Ger- 
man consul at Baltimore, detailed one of his men 
to supply Goltz with a lawyer and an application 
blank (then known as Form 375). The lawyer 
was Frederick F. Schneider, of 2 East German 
Street, Baltimore. On that application Goltz 
swore that his name was Bridgeman H. Taylor, 
his birthplace San Francisco, his citizenship 
American, his residence New York City, and his 
occupation that of export broker. Charles 
Tucker served as witness to these fantastic sen- 
timents. Two days later (August 31) the State 
Department issued passport number 40308 in 
the name of Taylor, and William Jennings Bryan 
signed the precious document. 

It was not necessary at that time to state the 
countries which the applicant intended to visit. 
Within a few weeks, however, that information 
was required on the passport. 

Each additional precaution taken by the Gov- 
ernment placed a new obstacle in the way of un- 
limited supply of passports. The Goltz method 
was easy enough, but it soon became impossible 
to employ it. The necessity for sending news 



84 The German Secret Service in America 

through to Berlin by courier was increasingly 
urgent and it devolved upon Captain von Papen 
to systematize the supply of passports. The 
military attache in November selected Lieutenant 
Hans von Wedell, who had already made a trip 
as courier to Berlin for his friend, Count von 
BernstorfT. Von Wedell was married to a Ger- 
man baroness. He had been a newspaper repor- 
ter in New York, and later a lawyer. He 
opened an office in Bridge Street, New York, and 
began to send out emissaries to sailors on interned 
German liners, and to their friends in Hoboken, 
directing them to apply for passports. He sent 
others to the haunts of tramps on the lower East 
Side, to the Mills Hotel, and other gathering 
places of the down-and-outs, offering ten, fifteen 
or twenty dollars to men who would apply for 
and deliver passports. And he bought them! 
He spent much time at the Deutscher Verein, and 
at the Elks' Club in 43rd Street where he often 
met his agents to give instructions and receive 
passports. His bills were paid by Captain von 
Papen, as revealed by the attache's checks and 
check stubs; on November 24, 1914, a payment in 
his favor of $500; on December 5, $500 more and 
then $300, the latter being for "journey money." 
Von Wedell's bills at the Deutscher Verein in 
November, 1914, came to $38.05, according to 




Copyright, Intern 



Hans von Wedell and his wife. He was an important member 
of the false-passport bureau and she a messenger 
from von Papen to Germany 



False Passports 85 

another counterfoil. The Captain in the mean- 
time employed Frau von Wedell as courier, send- 
ing her with messages to Germany. On Decem- 
ber 22, 1914, he paid the baroness, according to 
his check-book, $800. 

The passports secured by von Wedell, and by 
his successor, Carl Ruroede, Sr., a clerk in Oel- 
richs & Co., whom he engaged, were supplied by 
the dozens to officers whom the General Staff 
had ordered back to Berlin. Not only American 
passports, but Mexican, Swiss, Swedish, Nor- 
wegian and all South American varieties were 
seized eagerly by reservists bound for the front. 
Germans and Austrians, who had been captured 
in Russia, sent to Siberia as prisoners of war, 
escaped and making their way by caravan through 
China, had embarked on vessels bound for Amer- 
ica. Arriving in New York they shipped for 
neutral European countries. Among them was 
an Austrian officer, an expert aeroplane observer 
whose feet were frozen and amputated in Siberia, 
but who escaped to this country. He was or- 
dered home because of his extreme value in ob- 
servation, and after his flight three-fourths of 
the way round the world, the British took him 
off a ship at Falmouth to spend the remainder of 
the war in a prison camp. 

Captain von Papen used the bureau frequently 



86 The German Secret Service in America 

for passports for spies whom he wished to send 
to England, France, Italy or Russia. Anton 
Kuepferle and von Breechow were two such 
agents. Both were captured in England with 
false passports in their possession. Both con- 
fessed, and the former killed himself in Brixton 
Jail. 

Von Wedell and Ruroede grew reckless and 
boastful. Two hangers-on at the Mills Hotel 
called upon one of the writers of this volume one 
day and told him of von Wedell's practices, re- 
lated how they had blackmailed him out of $50, 
gave his private telephone numbers and set forth 
his haunts. When this and other information 
reached the Department of Justice, Albert G. 
Adams, a clever agent, insinuated himself into 
Ruroede's confidence, and offered to secure pass- 
ports for him for $50 each. Posing as a pro- 
German, he pried into the inner ring of the pass- 
port-buyers, and was informed by Ruroede just 
how the stock of passports needed replenishing. 

Though in the early days of the war it had not 
been necessary for the applicant to give more 
than a general description of himself, the cry of 
"German spies!" in the Allied countries became 
so insistent that the Government added the re- 
quirement of a photograph of the bearer. The 
Germans, however, found it a simple matter to 



False Passports 87 

give a general description of a man's eyes, color 
of hair, and age to fit the person who was actually 
to use the document; then forwarded the pic- 
ture of the applicant to be affixed. The appli- 
cant receiving the passport, would sell it at once. 
Even though the official seal was stamped on the 
photograph the Germans were not dismayed. 

Adams rushed into Ruroede's office one day 
waving a sheaf of five passports issued to him by 
the Government. Adams was ostensibly proud 
of his work, Ruroede openly delighted. 

"I knew I could get these passports easily," he 
boasted to Adams. "Why, if Lieutenant von 
Wedell had kept on here he never could have done 
this. He always was getting into a muddle." 

"But how can you use these passports with 
these pictures on them?" asked the agent. 

"Oh, that's easy," answered Ruroede. "Come 
in the back room. I'll show you." And Ru- 
roede, before the observant eyes of the Depart- 
ment of Justice, patted one of the passports with 
a damp cloth, then with adhesive paste fastened 
a photograph of another man over the original 
bearing the imprint of the United States seal. 

"We wet the photograph," said Ruroede, "and 
then we affix the picture of the man who is to 
use it. The new photograph also is dampened, 
but when it is fastened to the passport there still 



88 The German Secret Service in America 

remains a sort of vacuum in spots between the 
new picture and the old because of ridges made 
by the seal. So we turn the passport upside 
down, place it on a soft ground — say a silk hand- 
kerchief — and then we take a paper-cutter with 
a dull point, and just trace the letters on the seal. 
The result is that the new photograph dries ex- 
actly as if it had been stamped by Uncle Sam. 
You can't tell the difference." 

Adams never knew until long afterward that 
when he met Ruroede by appointment in Bowling 
Green, another German atop n Broadway was 
scrutinizing him through field-glasses, and ex- 
amining every one who paused nearby, who might 
arouse suspicion of Adams' ingenuous part in 
the transaction. 

Through Adams' efforts Ruroede and four 
Germans, one of them an officer in the German 
reserves, were arrested on January 2, on the 
Scandinavian-American liner Bergensfjord out- 
ward bound to Bergen, Norway. They had pass- 
ports issued through Adams at Ruroede's request 
under the American names of Howard Paul 
Wright, Herbert S. Wilson, Peter Hanson and 
Stanley F. Martin. Their real names were Ar- 
thur Sachse, who worked in Pelham Heights, N. 
Y., and who was returning to become a lieutenant 
in the German Army; Walter Miller, August R. 



False Passports 89 

Meyer and Herman Wegener, who had come to 
New York from Chile, on their way to the Father- 
land. 

On the day when Ruroede, his assistant, and the 
four men for whom he obtained passports were 
arrested, Joseph A. Baker, assistant superintend- 
ent of the Federal agents in New York, took pos- 
session of the office at 1 1 Bridge Street. As he 
was sorting papers and making a general inves- 
tigation, a German walked in bearing a card of 
introduction from von Papen, introducing him- 
self as Wolfram von Knorr, a German officer 
who up to the outbreak of the war had been naval 
attache in Tokio. The officer desired a passport. 
Baker, after a conversation in which von Knorr 
revealed von Papen's connection with the pass- 
port bureau, told him to return the next day. 
When the German read the next morning's news- 
papers he changed his lodging-place and his name. 

Von Wedell himself was a passenger on the 
Bergensfjord, but when he was lined up with the 
other passengers, the Federal agents, who did not 
have a description of him, missed him and left 
the vessel. He was later (January n) taken 
off the ship by the British, however, and trans- 
ferred to another vessel for removal to a prison 
camp. She struck a German mine and sank, and 
von Wedell is supposed to have drowned. 



90 The German Secret Service in America 

A few days before he sailed, he wrote a letter 
to von Bernstorff which fixes beyond question 
the responsibility for his false passport activities. 
The letter, dated from Nyack, where he was hid- 
ing, on December 26, 1914, follows: 

"His Excellency The Imperial German Ambassador, 
Count von Bernstorff, Washington, D. C. Your Excel- 
lency : Allow me most obediently to put before you the 
following facts : It seems that an attempt has been made 
to produce the impression upon you that I prematurely 
abandoned my post, in New York. That is not true. 

"I — My work was done. At my departure I left the 
service, well organized and worked out to its minutest 
details, in the hands of my successor, Mr. Carl Ruroede, 
picked out by myself, and, despite many warnings, still 
tarried for several days in New York in order to give 
him the necessary final directions and in order to hold in 
check the blackmailers thrown on my hands by the Ger- 
man officers until after the passage of my travelers 
through Gibraltar; in which I succeeded. Mr. Ruroede 
will testify to you that without my suitable preliminary 
labors, in which I left no conceivable means untried and 
in which I took not the slightest consideration of my 
personal weal or woe, it would be impossible for him, as 
well as for Mr. von Papen, to forward officers and 'as- 
pirants' in any number whatever, to Europe. This merit 
I lay claim to and the occurrences of the last days have 
unfortunately compelled me, out of sheer self-respect, to 
emphasize this to your Excellency. 

"II — The motives which induced me to leave New 



False Passports 91 

York and which, to my astonishment, were not communi- 
cated to you, are the following: 

"i. I knew that the State Department had, for three 
weeks, withheld a passport application forged by me. 
Why? 

"2. Ten days before my departure I learnt from a 
telegram sent me by Mr. von Papen, which stirred me up 
very much, and further through the omission of a cable, 
that Dr. Stark had fallen into the hands of the English. 
That gentleman's forged papers were liable to come back 
any day and could, owing chiefly to his lack of caution, 
easily be traced back to me. 

"3. OfHcers and aspirants of the class which I had to 
forward over, namely the people, saddled me with a lot 
of criminals and blackmailers, whose eventual revelations 
were liable to bring about any day the explosion of the 
bomb. 

"4. Mr. von Papen had repeatedly urgently ordered 
me to hide myself. 

" 5. Mr. Igel had told me I was taking the matter alto- 
gether too lightly and ought to — for God's sake — dis- 
appear. 

"6. My counsel . . . had advised me to hastily quit 
New York, inasmuch as a local detective agency was or- 
dered to go after the passport forgeries. 

"7. It had become clear to me that eventual arrest 
might yet injure the worthy undertaking and that my 
disappearance would probably put a stop to all investi- 
gation in this direction. 

"How urgent it was for me to go away is shown by 
the fact that, two days after my departure, detectives, 
who had followed up my telephone calls, hunted up my 



92 The German Secret Service in America 

wife's harmless and unsuspecting cousin in Brooklyn, and 
subjected her to an interrogatory. 

"Mr. von Papen and Mr. Albert have told my wife 
that I forced myself forward to do this work. That is 
not true. When I, in Berlin, for the first time heard of 
this commission, I objected to going and represented to 
the gentleman that my entire livelihood which I had 
created for myself in America by six years of labor was 
at stake therein. I have no other means, and although 
Mr. Albert told my wife my practice was not worth 
talking about, it sufficed, nevertheless, to decently sup- 
port myself and wife and to build my future on. I have 
finally, at the suasion of Count Wedell, undertaken it, 
ready to sacrifice my future and that of my wife. I have, 
in order to reach my goal, despite infinite difficulties, de- 
stroyed everything that I built up here for myself and 
my wife. I have perhaps sometimes been awkward, but 
always full of good will, and I now travel back to Ger- 
many with the consciousness of having done my duty as 
well as I understood it, and of having accomplished my 
task. 

"With expressions of the most exquisite consideration, 
I am, your Excellency, 

"Very respectfully, 
"(Signed) Hans Adam von Wedell." 

Ruroede was sentenced to three years in At- 
lanta prison. The four reservists, pleading 
guilty, protested they had taken the passports out 
of patriotism and were fined $200 each. 

The arrest of Ruroede exposed the New York 
bureau, and made it necessary for the Germans 



False Passports 93 

to shift their base of operations, but it did not 
put an end to the fraudulent passport conspira- 
cies. Captain Boy-Ed assumed the burden, and 
hired men to secure passports for him. One of 
these men was Richard Peter Stegler, a Prussian, 
33 years old, who had served in the German 
Navy and afterward came to this country to 
start on his life work. Before the war he had 
applied for his first citizenship papers but his 
name had not been removed from the German 
naval reserve list. 

"After the war started," Stegler said, "I re- 
ceived orders to return home. I was told that 
everything was in readiness for me. I was as- 
signed to the naval station at Cuxhaven. My 
uniform, my cap, my boots and my locker would 
be all set aside for me, and I was told just where 
to go and what to do. But I could not get back 
at that time and I kept on with my work." 

He became instead a member of the German 
secret service in New York. "There is not a 
ship that leaves the harbor, not a cargo that is 
loaded or unloaded, but that some member of this 
secret organization watches and reports every 
detail," he said. "All this information is trans- 
mitted in code to the German Government." In 
January, 191 5, if not earlier, Stegler was sent 
by the German Consulate to Boy-Ed's office, 



94 The German Secret Service in America 

where he received instructions to get a passport 
and make arrangements to go to England as a 
spy. Boy- Ed paid him $178, which the attache 
admitted. Stegler immediately got in touch with 
Gustave Cook and Richard Madden, of Hoboken, 
and made use of Madden's birth certificate and 
citizenship in obtaining a passport from the 
American Government. Stegler paid $100 for 
the document. Stegler pleaded guilty to the 
charge and served 60 days in jail; Madden and 
Cook were convicted of conspiracy in connection 
with the project, and were sentenced to 10 
months' imprisonment. 

"I was told to make the voyage to England on 
the Lusitania/' continued Stegler. "My instruc- 
tions were as follows : 'Stop at Liverpool, exam- 
ine the Mersey River, obtain the names, exact 
locations and all possible information concerning 
warships around Liverpool, ascertain the amount 
of munitions of war being unloaded on the Liver- 
pool docks from the United States, ascertain their 
ultimate destination, and obtain a detailed list of 
all the ships in the harbor.' 

"I was to make constant, though guarded in- 
quiries, of the location of the dreadnought squad- 
ron which the Germans in New York understand 
was anchored somewhere near St. George's 
Channel. I was to appear as an American citi- 



False Passports 95 

zen soliciting trade. Captain Boy-Ed advised 
me to get letters of introduction to business firms. 
He made arrangements so that I received such 
letters and in one letter were enclosed some rare 
stamps which were to be a proof to certain per- 
sons in England that I was working for the Ger- 
mans. 

"After having studied at Liverpool I was to 
go to London and make an investigation of the 
Thames and its shipping. From there I was to 
proceed to Holland and work my way to the 
German border. While my passport did not in- 
clude Germany, I was to give the captain of the 
nearest regiment a secret number which would 
indicate to him that I was a reservist on spy duty. 
By that means I was to hurry to Eisendal, head 
of the secret service in Berlin." 

Stegler did not make the trip because his wife 
learned of the enterprise and begged him not to 
go. He too had run afoul of the vigilant Adams, 
and was placed under arrest in February, I9 I 5> 
shortly after he decided to stay at home. In his 
possession were all the letters and telegrams ex- 
changed between him and Boy-Ed, and one tele- 
gram from "Winkler," Captain Boy-Ed's serv- 
ant. 

Stegler also said that he had been told by Dr. 
Karl A. Fuehr, one of Dr. Albert's assistants, 



96 The German Secret Service in America 

that Boy-Ed previously had sent to England 
Karl Hans Lody, the German who in November, 
I 9 I 5> was put to death as a spy in the Tower of 
London. Lody had been in the navy, had served 
on the Kaiser's yacht and then had come to this 
country and worked as an agent for the Ham- 
burg-American Line, going from one city to an- 
other. Shortly after the war started Lody had 
gone on the mission of espionage which cost him 
his life. 

Captain Boy-Ed authorized the commander of 
the German cruiser Geier, interned in Honolulu, 
to get his men back to Germany as best he could, 
by providing them with false passports. Still 
another of Boy-Ed's proteges was a naval re- 
servist, August Meier, who shipped as a hand on 
the freighter Evelyn with a cargo of horses for 
Bermuda. On the voyage practically all of the 
horses were poisoned. Meier, however, was ar- 
rested by the Federal authorities on the charge of 
using the name of a dead man in order to get an 
American passport. In supplying passports and 
in handling spies, Captain Boy-Ed was more sub- 
tle than his colleague, von Papen. Nevertheless 
the Government officials succeeded in getting a 
clear outline of his activities. The exposure of 
Boy-Ed's connection with Stegler made it neces- 



False Passports 97 

sary for the German Government to change its 
system once more. 

The Wilhelmstrasse had a bureau of its own. 
Reservists from America reported in Berlin for 
duty in Belgium and France, and their passports 
ceased to be useful, to them. The intelligence 
department commandeered the documents for 
agents whom they wished to send back to Amer- 
ica. Tiny flakes of paper were torn from the 
body of the passport and from the seal, in order 
that counterfeiters might match them up. On 
January 14, 191 5, an American named Reginald 
Rowland obtained a passport from the State De- 
partment for safe-conduct on a business trip to 
Germany. While it was being examined at the 
frontier every detail of the document was closely 
noted by the Germans. Some months later Cap- 
tain Schnitzer, chief of the German secret service 
in Antwerp, had occasion to send a spy to Eng- 
land. He chose von Breechow, a German whom 
von Papen had forwarded from New York, and 
who had his first naturalization papers from the 
United States. To Breechow he gave a facsimile 
of Rowland's passport identical with the original 
in every superficial respect except that the spy's 
photograph had been substituted for the original, 
and the age of the bearer set down as 31 — ten 
years older than Rowland. 



98 The German Secret Service in America 

Von Breechow passed the English officials at 
Rotterdam and at Tilbury. He soon fell under 
suspicion, however, and his passport was taken 
away. When the British learned that the real 
Rowland was at home in New Jersey, and in pos- 
session of his own passport, they sent for it, and 
compared the two. Breechow's revealed a false 
watermark, stamped on in clear grease, which 
made the paper translucent, but which was soluble 
in benzine. The stamp, ordinarily used to coun- 
tersign both the photograph and the paper in a 
certain way, had been applied in a different posi- 
tion. With those exceptions, and the suspicious 
Teutonic twist to a u d" in the word "dark," the 
counterfeit was regular. 

The Rosenthal case was the first to bring to 
light the false passport activities in Berlin. Ro- 
senthal, posing as an agent for gas mantles, trav- 
eled in England successfully as a spy under an 
emergency passport issued by the American Em- 
bassy in Berlin. Captain Prieger, the chief of a 
section in the intelligence department of the Gen- 
eral Staff, asked Rosenthal to make a second trip. 
The spy demurred, doubting whether his pass- 
port might be accepted a second time. The Cap- 
tain turned to a safe, extracted a handful of false 
American passports, and said: "I can fit you 
out with a passport in any name you wish." Ro- 



False Passports 99 

senthal decided to employ his own. He was ar- 
rested and imprisoned in England. 

As the State Department increased its vigil- 
ance the evil began to expire. It was further 
stifled by concerted multiplication by the Allies 
of the examinations which the stranger had to 
undergo. But during its course it made per- 
sonal communication between Berlin and lower 
Broadway almost casual. 



CHAPTER VIII 

INCENDIARISM 

Increased munitions production — The opening explo- 
sions — Orders from Berlin — Von Papen and Seattle — 
July, 1915— The Van Koolbergen affair— The autumn of 
1 91 5 — The Pinole explosion. 

A bomb is an easy object to manufacture. 
Take a section of lead pipe from six to ten inches 
long, and solder into it a partition of thin metal, 
which divides the tube into two compartments. 
Place a high explosive in one compartment and 
seal it carefully (the entire operation requires a 
gentle touch) and in the other end pour a strong 
acid ; cap it, and seal it. If you have chosen the 
proper metal for the partition, and acid of a 
strength to eat slowly through it to the explosive, 
you have produced a bomb of a type which Ger- 
man destroying agents were fond of using in 
America from the earliest days of their opera- 
tion. 

When the first panic of war had passed, the 

Allied nations took account of stock and sent 

their purchasing agents to America for war ma- 

100 



Incendiarism 101 

terials. Manufacturers of explosives set to work 
at once to fill contracts of unheard-of size. They 
built new factories almost overnight, hired men 
broadcast, and sacrificed every other considera- 
tion to that of swift and voluminous output. 
Accidents were inevitable. Probably we shall 
never know what catastrophes were actually 
wrought by German sympathizers, for the very 
nature of the processes and the complete ruin 
which followed an explosion guarded the secret 
of guilt. No doubt carelessness was largely to 
blame for the earlier explosions, but instead of 
diminishing as the new hands became more skill- 
ful, and as greater vigilance was employed every- 
where, the number of disasters increased. The 
word "disaster" is used advisedly. Powder, gun- 
cotton, trinitrotoluol (or TNT, as it is better 
known), benzol (one of the chief substances 
used in the manufacture of TNT) and dynamite 
were being produced in great volume for the 
Allies in American plants within a comparatively 
short time — all powerful explosives even in mi- 
nute quantity. 

At sea the German navy was losing control 
daily. It therefore behooved the German forces 
in America to stop the production of munitions 
at its source. It may be well, for the force which 
such presentation carries, to recount very briefly 



102 The German Secret Service in America 

the major accidents which occurred in America 
in the first few months after August, 1914. 

On August 30 one powder mill of the du Pont 
Powder company (strictly speaking the E. I. du 
Pont de Nemours Company) at Pompton Lakes, 
New Jersey, blew up. In September a guncotton 
explosion in the Wright Chemical Works caused 
the death of three people, and a large property 
damage. In October the factory of the Pain Fire- 
works Display Company was destroyed, and sev- 
eral people were killed. In the same month the 
fireworks factory of Detwiller and Street in Jer- 
sey City suffered an explosion and the loss of 
four lives. These explosions were the opening 
guns. 

Throughout August and September most of 
these accidents may be attributed to the inexpe- 
rience and confusion which followed greatly in- 
creased production in the powder mills. But a 
circular dated November 18, issued by German 
Naval Headquarters to all naval agents through- 
out the world, ordered mobilized all "agents who 
are overseas and all destroying agents in ports 
where vessels carrying war material are loaded 
in England, France, Canada, the United States 
and Russia." 

Followed these orders : 

"It is indispensable by the intermediary of the 



Incendiarism 103 

third person having no relation with the official 
representatives of Germany to recruit progres- 
sively agents to organize explosions on ships 
sailing to enemy countries in order to cause de- 
lays and confusion in the loading, the departure 
and the unloading of these ships. With this end 
in view we particularly recommend to your at- 
tention the deckhands, among whom are to be 
found a great many anarchists and escaped crim- 
inals. The necessary sums for buying and hir- 
ing persons charged with executing the projects 
will be put at your disposal on your demand." 

Equally incriminating proof that the "destroy- 
ing agents" were active in and about the fac- 
tories lies in a circular intercepted by the French 
secret service in Stockholm, in a letter addressed 
by one Dr. Klasse in Germany to the Pan-German 
League in Sweden, in which he said : 

"Inclosed is the circular of November 22, 1914, 
for information and execution upon United 
States territory. We draw your attention to the 
possibility of recruiting destroying agents among 
the anarchist labor organization." This circular 
was signed by Dr. Fischer, Councillor General of 
the German Army. 

In the first six months of 191 5 the du Pont 
factories at Haskell, N. J., Carney's Point, N. J., 
Wayne, Pa., and Wilmington, Del., experienced 



104 The German Secret Service in America 

explosions and fires; a chemical explosion oc- 
curred in a factory in East 19th Street, New 
York ; the Anderson Chemical Company, at Wel- 
lington, N. J., was rocked on May 3 by an explo- 
sion of guncotton which cost three lives; five 
more lives were flashed out in a similar accident 
in the Equitable powder plant at Alton, 111. On 
New Year's Day, the Buckthorne plant of the 
John A. Roebling Company, manufacturers of 
shell materials, at Trenton, was completely de- 
stroyed by fire, the property loss estimated at 
$1,500,000. And on June 26, the iEtna Powder 
plant at Pittsburgh suffered a chemical explosion 
which killed one man and injured ten others. 

Most of these "accidents" had taken place near 
the Atlantic seaboard. Yet Germany was active 
in the far West. On May 30 a barge laden with 
a large cargo of dynamite lay in the harbor of 
Seattle, Washington. The dynamite was con- 
signed to Russia and was about to be transferred 
to a steamer, when it exploded with a shock of 
earthquake violence felt many miles inland, and 
comparable to the explosion in the harbor of 
Halifax in December, 191 7. Two counterfoils 
in von Papen's check-book cast some light on the 
activities of the consulate in Seattle, the first 
dated February 11, 191 5, the amount $1,300, the 
payee "German Consulate, Seattle," the penned 



Incendiarism 105 

notation "Angelegenheit" (affair) preceded by a 
mysterious "C"; the second dated May n, 1915, 
for $500, payable to one "Schulenberg" l through 
the same consulate. 

The month of July was a holocaust. A tank 
of phenol exploded in New York, the benzol plant 
of the Semet Solvay Company was destroyed at 
Solvay, N. Y. ; on the 7th serious explosions oc- 
curred at the du Pont plant at Pompton Lakes 
and at the Philadelphia benzol plant of Harrison 
Brothers (the latter causing $500,000 damage) ; 
on the 1 6th five employees were killed in an ex- 
plosion and fire at the ^Etna plant at Sinnema- 
honing, Pa., three days later there was another 
at the du Pont plant in Wilmington ; on the 25th 
a munitions train on the Pennsylvania line was 
wrecked at Metuchen, N. J. ; on the 28th the du 
Pont works at Wilmington suffered again; and 

1 Franz Schulenberg was a deserter from the German army 
who advertised in the Spokane newspapers in February, 1915, 
for land on which to colonize a number of Spanish families. 
These families turned out to be Hindus, whom he proposed 
to employ in obtaining information of Canadian shipping, to be 
relayed by secret wireless to German raiders in the Pacific. 
Schulenberg was captured on December 5, 1917, in an auto- 
mobile on the road from Santa Cruz to San Francisco, two 
days after he had left a woman spy who was associated with 
von Papen's office, and who directed Schulenberg's movements 
in the United States. He admitted having bought, in 1915, a ton 
of dynamite, fifty Maxim silencers, fifty rifles, and a quantity 
of fuse for shipment to Hindus near the Canadian border, be- 
tween Victoria and Vancouver. 



106 The German Secret Service in America 

the month came to a fitting close with the de- 
struction of a glaze mill in the American Powder 
Company at Acton, Mass., on the 29th. (The 
British army in Mesopotamia had just entered 
Kut-el-Amara at this time, and far to the north- 
ward Germany was prosecuting a successful cam- 
paign to force a Russian retirement from Po- 
land.) 

Each incident raised havoc in its immediate 
vicinity. Each represents a carefully worked-out 
plan involving a group of destroying agents. 
There is not space here to describe the plots 
in detail, nor to picture the horror of their re- 
sults. But the affidavit of Johannes Hendrikus 
Van Koolbergen, dated San Francisco, August 
27, 191 5, may serve to show typical methods of 
operation, as well as to provide a story more than 
usually melodramatic. 

Van Koolbergen was a Hollander by birth, and 
a British subject by naturalization. In April, 
191 5, he met in the Heidelberg Cafe, in San Fran- 
cisco, a man named Wilhelm von Brincken, who 
lived at 303 Piccadilly Apartments, and who 
asked Van Koolbergen to call on him there. The 
latter, however, was leaving for Canada, and it 
was not until some five weeks later that he re- 
turned and found that in his absence von Brincken 



Incendiarism 107 

had twice telephoned him to pursue the acquaint- 
ance. 

Van Koolbergen called. Von Brincken ex- 
plained that he was a German army officer, on se- 
cret service, and employed directly by Franz 
Bopp, the German consul in San Francisco. His 
visitor's identity and personality was apparently 
well known to him, for he offered Van Kool- 
bergen $1,000 for the use of his passport into 
Canada, "to visit a friend, to assist him in some 
business matters." Van Koolbergen refused to 
rent his passport, but volunteered to go himself 
on any mission. This offer was discussed at a 
later meeting at the consulate with Herr Bopp, 
and accepted, after, as Koolbergen said, "I be- 
came suspicious, and upon different questions be- 
ing asked me ... I became very pro-German in 
the expression of my sentiments." 

He was shown into an adjoining office, and von 
Brincken popped in, and "asked me if I would 
do something for him in Canada . . . and I an- 
swered: 'Sure, I will do something, even blow 
up bridges', if there is any money in it.' (This 
struck my mind because of what I had read of 
what had been done in Canada of late — some- 
thing about a bridge being blown up — ) And he 
said : Tf that is so, you can make good money.' " 



108 The German Secret Service in America 

Von Brincken made an appointment with his 
newly engaged destroying agent for the follow- 
ing day. On the window-sill of 303 Piccadilly 
Apartments sat a flower pot with a tri-colored 
band around its rim. If the red was turned out- 
ward towards Van Koolbergen as he came along 
the street, he was to come right upstairs. If 
he saw the blue, he was to loiter discreetly about 
until the red was turned ; if the white area showed, 
he was to return another day. 

The red invitation signaled him to come up, 
and the two bargained for some time over Van 
Koolbergen's Canadian mission, without coming 
to an understanding. Once safely out of von 
Brincken's sight, the "destroying agent" pattered 
to the British Consulate and betrayed to Carnegie 
Ross, the consul, what was afoot. Ross urged 
him to advise Canada at once, so Van Koolbergen 
retold his story in a letter to Wallace Orchard, 
in the freight department of the Canadian Pacific 
Railway at Vancouver, B. C. 

Orchard telegraphed back demanding Van 
Koolbergen's presence at once, and furnished 
money and transportation. Meanwhile the latter 
had pretended to accept vonBricken's commission 
to go to Canada and blow up a military train, 
bridge, or tunnel on the Canadian Pacific line be- 
tween Revelstoke and Vancouver, for which he 



Incendiarism 109 

was to receive a fee of $3,000. The German ex- 
hibited complete maps of the railroad, told when 
a dynamite train might be expected to pass over 
that section of the road, and outlined to Van 
Koolbergen just where and when he could pro- 
cure dynamite for the job. So on a Sunday 
morning in early May Van Koolbergen arrived 
in Vancouver, and lost no time in getting in touch 
with Orchard and the British Secret Service, 
with whom he framed the following plan : 

Van Koolbergen was to send a letter to von 
Brincken warning him that something would hap- 
pen in a day or two. The Vancouver newspapers 
would then carry a prepared story to the effect 
that a tunnel had caved in in the Selkirk moun- 
tains, whereupon Van Koolbergen was to collect 
for his services, and to secure incriminating evi- 
dence in writing from von Brincken if possible. 

The plot worked well. The news story ap- 
peared, and cast a mysterious air over the acci- 
dent. Van Koolbergen at once wrote a postcard 
to von Brincken : 

"On the front page of Vancouver papers of (date) 
news appears of a flood in Japan. Our system may be 
in trouble, so wire here at the Elysium Hotel." 

A few days later Van Koolbergen returned to 
San Francisco and met von Brincken, who told 



110 The German Secret Service in America 

him that he had replied to the postcard by tele- 
gram: 

"Would like to send some flowers to your wife but do 
not know her address," 

which meant simply that he had wished to com- 
municate with Van Koolbergen through the lat- 
ter's wife. (These messages, by the way, were 
despatched from Oakland by Charles C. Crow- 
ley, who will appear again.) And von Brincken 
paid Van Koolbergen $200 in bills, and asked him 
to come to the consulate for the balance of his 
fee. 

Franz Bopp was skeptical. For some reason 
he mistrusted Van Koolbergen. He produced a 
map of British Columbia and asked him to de- 
scribe what he had accomplished. Van Kool- 
bergen, confused for a moment, suggested that 
he would be unwise to go into detail before three 
witnesses (Bopp, von Brincken, and von Schack, 
the vice-consul). Bopp rose indignantly and 
said that his secret was safe with three who had 
been sworn to serve the Vaterland. So Van 
Koolbergen invented and related the story of The 
Dynamiting That Never Was, supporting it with 
copies of the Vancouver newspapers. Bopp 
wanted more proof; at Van Koolbergen's sug- 
gestion, he wrote one Van Roggenen, the Dutch 



Incendiarism 111 

vice-consul at Vancouver, asking him to "inquire 
of the General Superintendent of the Canadian 
Pacific Railway Company why a car of freight 
which I expected from the East had not arrived 
yet, and to kindly wire me at my expense." Van 
Roggenen happened to be a friend of Van Kool- 
bergen's, and of course any inquiry made of the 
railroad for Van Koolbergen's car of freight 
would have been tactfully construed and prop- 
erly answered. But to make assurance doubly 
sure, Van Koolbergen wired Orchard in Van- 
couver to send him the following telegram : 

"Superintendent refuses information. Found out 
however that freight has been delayed eleven days on 
account of accident. Signed V. R." 

Armed with this fictitious reply, which Orchard 
soon sent him, Van Koolbergen called at the con- 
sulate, and was paid $300 more in cash. In order 
to get as much money as possible as soon as possi- 
ble, the "destroying agent" agreed to cut his price 
from $3,000 to $1,750, and was promised the 
money the next day. The next day came, but no 
money. Van Koolbergen sent a sharp note to 
the Consul, suggesting blackmail, and the Ger- 
man Empire in San Francisco capitulated; von 
Brincken met Van Koolbergen at the Palace Hotel 
and paid him $1,750, (of which he extracted $250 



112 The German Secret Service in America 

as commission !) . He made Koolbergen sign a re- 
ceipt for $700, as he said a payment of $1,750 
would look bad on the books, was much too high 
— even seven hundred was high, but could be 
justified if any one higher up complained. 
"And," concluded the thrifty Van Koolbergen in 
his affidavit written August 27, "I have some of 
the greenbacks given me by von Brincken now in 
my possession." 

The San Franciscan participants in the epi- 
sode were finally brought to justice. Bopp, 
Baron Eckhardt, von Schack, Lieutenant von 
Brincken, Crowley, and Mrs. Margaret Cornell, 
Crowley's secretary, were indicted, tried, and 
convicted. The men received sentences of two 
years and fines of $10,000 each ; Mrs. Cornell was 
sentenced to a year and a day. The three mem- 
bers of the consulate, thanks to their other ac- 
tivities, involved themselves in a series of charges 
for which the maximum punishment was some- 
thing more than the average man's lifetime in 
prison. Certain of their adventures will appear 
in other phases of German activity to be dis- 
cussed. They may be dismissed here, however, 
with the statement that the California consulate 
also planned the destruction of munitions plants 
at ^Etna, Indiana, and at Ishpeming, Michigan. 

The State Department released on October 10, 



Incendiarism 118 

1 91 7, a telegram from the Foreign Office in Ber- 
lin, addressed to Count von Bernstorff, which 
established beyond question the chief's familiar- 
ity with these operations, and more especially 
the continued desire of the Foreign Office to in- 
terrupt transcontinental shipping in Canada. It 
is dated January 2, 19 16. Its text follows : 

"Secret. General staff desires energetic action in re- 
gard to proposed destruction of the Canadian Pacific 
Railroad at several points, with a view to complete and 
protracted interruption of traffic. Captain Boehm, who 
is known on your side, and is shortly returning, has been 
given instructions. Inform the military attache and pro- 
vide the necessary funds. 

"ZlMMERMANN." 

The factory explosions continued. The Mid- 
vale Steel Company suffered incendiary fires; a 
Providence warehouse containing a consignment 
of cotton for Russia was burned; there were fires 
in the shell plant of the Brill Car Company, in the 
Southwark Machinery Company, and in the shell 
department of the Diamond Forge and Steel 
Company. For August the ghastly recitation 
proceeds somewhat as follows : Bethlehem Steel 
Company, powder flash, ten killed ; League Island 
Navy Yard, Philadelphia, fire on battleship Ala- 
bama; Newport News Navy Yard, three fires in 
three weeks. In September an explosion in the 



114< The German Secret Service in America 

aeroplane factory of the Curtiss plant at Depew, 
New York, a German suspected; explosions in 
the shell factory of the National Cable and Con- 
duit Company at Hastings, New York ; an explo- 
sion of benzol and wax in the plant of Smith and 
Lenhart, New York, in which two people were 
seriously injured; an explosion in a fireworks fac- 
tory at North Bergen, N. J., in which two people 
were killed ; an explosion which cost two lives in 
the shell factory of the Westinghouse Electric 
Company at Pittsburgh. Scarcely a week went 
by during the autumn without an explosion and 
fire which wiped out from one to a dozen lives, 
and from one hundred thousand to a million dol- 
lars. Munitions plants were blown to atoms in a 
moment, and hardly before the charred ground 
had cooled, were being rebuilt, for the guns in 
France were hungry. 

Out of the mass of munitions accidents in the 
year 191 5 stands sharp and clear the Bethlehem 
Steel fire of November 10 — of which all Ger- 
many had had warning, and on which the Ger- 
man press was forbidden to comment — when 800 
big guns were destroyed. The du Pont and 
^tna organizations suffered again and again ; a 
chemical plant had two fires which cost three- 
quarters of a million dollars; two explosions in 
the Tennessee Coal and Iron Works at Birming- 



Incendiarism 115 

ham, Alabama, did considerable property dam- 
age, and assisted Germany further by frighten- 
ing labor away from work. Suspects were ar- 
rested here and there, and always their trails led 
back to German or Austrian nationality or sym- 
pathy. 

Their chiefs were elusive. Captain von Papen 
sauntered out of the Ritz-Carlton into Madison 
Avenue, New York, one afternoon. He idled 
down to Forty-second Street, and paused, as if un- 
decided where to promenade. He turned east, 
walked a block, and turned again down the ramp 
into the Grand Central Station. Quickening his 
pace — he had only a minute more — he crossed the 
great waiting-room, presented a ticket at the 
train gate, and a moment later was in the Twen- 
tieth Century Limited, the last passenger aboard. 
He was seen next day in Chicago. And for a 
month thereafter he was completely lost to the 
authorities, while, as they found out later, he 
made a grand tour of the country, going first to 
Yellowstone Park, then down the Pacific Coast 
to Mexico, where he joined Boy-Ed, and finally 
returning to New York through San Francisco. 
He had ample opportunity to confer with his con- 
sular deputies, and his destroying agents. In 
August a train loaded with 7,000 pounds of dyna- 
mite from the du Pont works at Pinole, Cali- 



116 The German Secret Service in America 

fornia, was destroyed; in the evidence against 
von Papen is this letter concerning the price to 
be paid for the Pinole job : 

"Dear S. : Your last letter with clipping today, and 
note what you have to say. I have taken it up with them 
and 'B' " (who was Franz Bopp) "is awaiting decision 
of 'P' " (who was von Papen) "in New York, so cannot 
advise you yet, and will do so as soon as I get word 
from you. You might size up the situation in the mean- 
time." 

Glancing back over the record of 19 15 — which 
was hardly mitigated in the succeeding years of 
war — one is inclined to marvel at the hardy 
perennial pose of the deported attache, who said 
as he left the United States : 

"I leave my post without any feeling of bitterness, 
because I know that when history is once written, it will 
establish our clean record despite all the misrepresenta- 
tions and calumnies spread broadcast at present." 



CHAPTER IX 

MORE BOMB PLOTS 

Kaltschmidt and the Windsor explosions — The Port 
Huron tunnel — Werner Horn — Explosions embarrass the 
Embassy — Black Tom — The second Welland affair — 
Harry Newton — The damage done in three years — 
Waiter spies. 

In the check-book of the military attache was 
a counterfoil betraying a payment of $1,000 made 
on March 27, 1915, to "W. von Igel (for A. 
Kaltschmidt, Detroit)." That stub was part of 
a bomb plot. 

A young German named Charles Francis Respa 
was employed in 1908 by Albert Carl Kaltschmidt 
in a Detroit machine shop. Seven years later 
Kaltschmidt had occasion to hire Respa again. 
To a group which included Respa, his brother- 
in-law Carl Schmidt, Gus ;Stevens and Kalt- 
schmidt's own brother-in-law, Fritz Neef , he out- 
lined a plan for destroying factories in Canada. 
Neef was the Detroit agent for the Eisemann 
magneto, and had a machine shop of his own. 

"We are not citizens of this country," Kalt- 
117 



118 The German Secret Service in America 

schmidt reiterated to his accomplices. "It is our 
duty to stand by the Fatherland. The Americans 
would throw us out of work after war started." 
(The Americans, on the contrary, gave the ring- 
leaders of the conspiracy plenty of hard labor 
after the war started.) To seal the bargain 
Kaltschmidt paid the men a retainer, and sent 
Stevens and Respa to Winnipeg to see whether 
it might not be feasible to blow up the railroad 
bridge there. 

Respa reported back. His next assignment 
was to go to Port Huron and determine whether 
enough dynamite might be attached to the rear 
of a passenger train bound through the interna- 
tional tunnel under the St. Clair River to de- 
stroy the tube. Respa came to the conclusion 
that it was not practicable, for the authorities 
were taking precautions against just such an 
operation. Respa and Stevens were then des- 
patched to Duluth, where they met Schmidt and 
a fourth member of the group, each carrying a 
suitcase containing numerous sticks of dynamite, 
and the quartette returned with its explosives to 
Detroit. 

Kaltschmidt then hired him for $18 a week. 
Respa had left Germany before his term of mili- 
tary service came due; Kaltschmidt used this in- 
formation as a club over his head, for he knew 



More Bomb Plots 119 

the young man could not return to the Father- 
land. On June 21 Kaltschmidt called Respa to 
his office in the Kresge Building, and showed him 
two elaborate time-clock devices which could be 
so set as to fire bombs at any specified hour, and 
Respa, at Kaltschmidt's command, carried the 
clocks across the Detroit River to Windsor, On- 
tario, late that afternoon. His sister, Mrs. 
Schmidt, went with him, and together they wan- 
dered about until the hour when they knew that 
William Lefler, the night watchman of the Pea- 
body Overall Company factory in Walkerville, 
would go on duty. 

Under cover of darkness, the brother and sis- 
ter met Lefler, who gave Respa two suitcases full 
of dynamite which Kaltschmidt had smuggled 
piecemeal into Canada under the front seat of 
his automobile. Respa attached the clocks to the 
charges, set one of the infernal machines near 
the factory, and planted the other in the rear of 
the Windsor armory, in which Canadian troops 
were asleep, and near which was a Catholic girls' 
school. Then he and Mrs. Schmidt scurried 
back to the ferry and took the last boat to Detroit. 
At three o'clock in the morning they heard a 
muffled roar from the Canadian side; the factory 
bomb had gone off. The other charge failed to 
explode : Respa said he deliberately set the per- 



120 The German Secret Service in America 

cussion cap at the wrong- angle, because he knew 
that soldiers were sleeping in the armory, and 
he had no stomach for murder. 

One of the gang was presently arrested, and 
Respa was spirited away to the retirement of a 
mechanic's job in a West Hoboken garage. But 
he grew restless, and spent his money, and Kalt- 
schmidt refused him more. He pawned his 
watch and his ring, bought a ticket to Detroit, 
and presented himself before Kaltschmidt with 
a demand for money, in default of which Respa 
proposed to "squeal." He was immediately re- 
turned to the payroll. 

The Canadian provincial detectives had be- 
gun to search for the night watchman, Lefler. 
They found him, and from him they extracted a 
full confession. Respa's arrest was easy, and 
the United States willingly returned him, al- 
though Kaltschmidt did attempt to establish a 
false alibi for his underling. Respa was sen- 
tenced to life imprisonment, Lefler to ten years, 
for the destruction of the factory. 

The dragnet closed in on Kaltschmidt. Wil- 
liam M. Jarosch, a German-born, who later en- 
listed in the United States Army, had been intro- 
duced to Kaltschmidt in Chicago in 191 5 by a 
former German consul there, Gustav Jacobsen. 
Jacobsen recruited two other men, and Kalt- 



More Bomb Plots 121 

schmidt took the three to Detroit. Jarosch was 
directed to secure employment at the plant of the 
Detroit Screw Works, but he was rejected, so 
Kaltschmidt told him to watch the plant for a 
good opportunity to set a bomb there. In the 
course of his sojourn in Detroit he went to the 
Respa home in the placid little village of Romeo 
and returned with a generous quantity of dyna- 
mite. This he delivered to Neef, and in a con- 
ference at the magneto shop Kaltschmidt ex- 
plained the operation of the time-clock, and or- 
dered Jarosch to set the device at the Detroit 
Screw factory that night. He and his Chicago 
confederates set out for the scene, but there were 
guards about, and Jarosch had no desire for ar- 
rest, so he took the bomb to his hotel room, dis- 
engaged the trigger, and calmly went to sleep. 
Next morning Kaltschmidt reproached him, and 
Jarosch resigned, to return months later to show 
Federal officers where he had buried some 80 
pounds of dynamite, nitroglycerine, and a bomb. 
Kaltschmidt also conspired to destroy the Port 
Huron tunnel. For this enterprise he contrived 
a car which he proposed to load with dynamite 
set to explode with a time fuse. Fritz Neef, the 
Stuttgart graduate and expert mechanical en- 
gineer, was his able assistant and adviser in this 
project. The car was of standard railway 



122 The German Secret Service in America 

gauge. It was to be set on the Grand Trunk 
tracks at the mouth of the Port Huron end of 
the tunnel and released, to roll down into the 
darkness under the river. At the low point in 
the tunnel's curve the charge would explode, 
bursting the walls of the tube, and completely in- 
terrupting the heavy international freight traffic 
at that point. 

The "devil car" never was released. Kalt- 
schmidt was arrested, and finally, in December, 
19 1 7, tried and convicted on three counts. He 
was given the maximum sentence, of four years' 
imprisonment and $20,000 fine. His sister, Mrs. 
Neef, who had been an active intermediary, was 
sentenced to three years' imprisonment and was 
fined $15,000; Carl Schmidt and his wife were 
each condemned to two years in prison, and as- 
sessed a fine of $10,000 each, and only old Franz 
Respa, the father of the dynamiter, was ac- 
quitted. 

The activities of this group received tangible 
approval from the German Embassy. Even be- 
fore von Papen drew the check on March 27 for 
Kaltschmidt, the attache's secretary, von Igel, 
had transferred $2,000 to the Detroit German 
from the banking firm of Knauth, Nachod 
and Kuhne (January 23). On October 5, long 
after the Walkerville explosion, but while the 



More Bomb Plots 123 

Port Huron venture was still a possibility, the 
Chase National Bank of New York transferred 
to Knauth, Nachod and Kuhne $25,000 from the 
joint account maintained there by Count von 
Bernstorff and Dr. Albert, and next day the 
money was placed to Kaltschmidt's credit. 

The Port Huron tunnel was the object of Ger- 
man attentions from the active San Francisco 
consulate. Crowley, who had been von Brinck- 
en's messenger in the Van Koolbergen affair, and 
one Louis J. Smith, were hired by Herr Bopp 
to go east on a destroying mission. They ran 
out of money in New York, and called at the New 
York consulate for assistance. They were told 
that the New York consulate had nothing to do 
with Pacific coast activities, so they wired von 
Schack for funds. He replied, chiding them for 
not having called on von Papen. 

Late in June Smith left New York and joined 
Crowley at the Normandy Hotel in Detroit. 
"Then we went to Port Huron," he said, "where 
we planned to dynamite a railroad tunnel and a 
horse train. We didn't do it, though. 

"Then we went to Toronto, and Crowley told 
me to plant a bomb under a horse train in the 
West Toronto yards. But I saw a policeman, 
and I got out quick. Then we took some nitro- 
glycerine, cotton, sawdust, and a tin pan and 



124 The German Secret Service in America 

some other things to Grosse Isle, Ontario, and 
went out back of a cemetery and made some 
bombs. 

"Well, we got back to San Francisco late in 
July, and Crowley and I cooked up an expense 
account of $1,254.80, and took it up to the con- 
sulate. Von Schack locked the door behind us, 
and then he said: 'I don't want any statement. 
Tell me how much you want ?' We told him, and 
he said he would get it the following day. Then 
all of a sudden he asked : 'How do I know you 
fellows did any jobs in Canada ?' 

" 'Wire the mayor of Toronto and ask him!' 
Crowley answered." 

On one occasion at least the Germans respected 
American property, for the protection America 
might afford. Werner Horn, a former lieuten- 
ant in the Landwehr, was in Guatemala when 
the war broke out. He made an attempt to re- 
turn to his command, but got no farther than 
New York, where he placed himself at the dis- 
posal of Captain von Papen. On January 18 the 
military attache paid him $700. On February 
2 Horn exploded a charge of dynamite on the 
Canadian end of the international bridge at 
Vanceboro, Maine, spanning the St. Croix River 
to New Brunswick. The explosion caused a 
slight damage to the Canadian half of the bridge. 



More Bomb Plots 125 

A few hours later Horn was arrested in Vance- 
boro, and admitted the crime. 

When the Canadian authorities applied for his 
extradition, the warrant which Judge Hale issued 
was not executed, the United States Marshal for 
Maine having received word from Washington 
that a well-preserved treaty between Great Brit- 
ain and the United States would cover just such 
a case, and Horn was indicted on a charge of 
having transported explosives from New York 
City to Vanceboro. His attorneys naively at- 
tempted to secure his liberty by casting a pro- 
tective mantle of international law about his 
shoulders : Werner Horn, they said, was a First 
Lieutenant of the West Prussian Pioneer Bat- 
talion Number 17, and as such was sworn by His 
Royal Majesty of Prussia to 

". . . discharge the obligations of his office in a becom- 
ing manner, . . . execute diligently and loyally whatever 
is made his duty to do and carry out, and whatever is 
commanded him, by day and by night, on land and on sea, 
and . . . conduct himself bravely and irreproachably in 
all wars and military events that may occur . . ." 

Yet he was tried, and that without much delay, 
and convicted, and sentenced to imprisonment. 

Although the destruction of railways was an 
attractive means of stopping the progress of mu- 
nitions to the seaboard, and although it was a 



126 The German Secret Service in America 

recognized practice during 191 5, it made the Em- 
bassy at Washington uneasy. Bernstorft pro- 
tested to the Foreign Office in Berlin that if a 
German agent should be caught in the act of 
dynamiting a railroad it would be exceedingly 
embarrassing for him, and increase the difficulties 
of his already ticklish role of apologist and ex- 
plainer-extraordinary. The Foreign Office ac- 
cordingly sent a telegram to von Papen : 

"January 26 — For Military Attache. . . . Railway em- 
bankments and bridges must not be touched. Embassy 
must in no circumstances be compromised." 

(Signed) "Representative of General Staff." 

And thereafter American railway bridges and 
embankments were safe, though their owners 
may not have been aware of the fact at the 
time. 

It is no mere metaphor to say that during 191 5 
and 1916 the smoke of German explosions in fac- 
tories in the United States was spreading across 
the sun, casting the deepening shadow of war 
over America. There was dynamite found in 
the coal tender of a munitions train on the Bal- 
timore and Ohio Railroad at Callery Junction, 
Pa., on December 10, 191 5, the day on which 
enormous quantities of wheat were destroyed by 
fire in grain elevators at Erie. A few hours 



More Bomb Plots 127 

earlier a two-million-dollar explosion had oc- 
curred at the Hopewell plant of the du Pont 
works. Shortly before Christmas a ton and a 
half of nitroglycerine exploded at Fayville, Illi- 
nois. 

During 1916 there were a dozen major explo- 
sions in the du Pont properties alone and liter- 
ally dozens of lives were lost. Two arms plants 
at Bridgeport, Conn., were blown up. An ex- 
plosion in May wiped out a large chemical plant 
in Cadillac, Michigan. A munitions works of 
the Bethlehem Steel Company at Newcastle, Pa., 
was destroyed. The climax in violence came, 
however, in the sultry night of August 1-2. 
Shortly after midnight the rocky island of Man- 
hattan trembled, and the roar of a prodigious 
blast burst over the harbor of New York. Two 
million pounds of munitions were being trans- 
ported in freight trains and on barges near the 
island of Black Tom, a few hundred yards from 
the Bartholdi Statue of Liberty. Some one, 
somehow, supplied the spark. The loss of life 
was inconsiderable, for that neighborhood was 
not inhabited, but the confusion was complete. 
Heavy windows in the canyons of lower Manhat- 
tan were shivered, and for a few moments many 
of the streets rained broken glass. Shell-laden 
barges near the original explosion set up a scat- 



128 The German Secret Service in America 

tering fire which continued for some time, most 
of the projectiles losing their power through lack 
of a substantial breech-block. But the immigra- 
tion station on Ellis Island was in panic, and its 
position became more unpleasant as one of the 
blazing barges drifted down upon it. The shock 
was felt far out in Jersey, and northward in Con- 
necticut. An estimate of damage was placed at 
thirty millions of dollars, probably as accurate 
as such an estimate need be; the event was ut- 
terly spectacular, and from the point of view of 
the unknown destroying agent, effective. 

Exactly one year after von Papen gave up the 
first attempt upon the Welland Canal, a second 
enterprise began with the same objective. Cap- 
tain von Papen felt that von der Goltz had bun- 
gled. This time he intrusted the mission to the 
doughty and usually reliable Paul Koenig. On 
September 27, 191 5, Koenig, with Richard Emil 
Leyendecker, a "hyphenated American" who dealt 
during the daytime in art woods at 347 Fifth 
Avenue, New York, and Fred Metzler, of Jersey 
City, Koenig's secretary, went to Buffalo and 
Niagara Falls, accompanied by Mrs. Koenig. 
They had no trouble in crossing the border and 
making a thorough investigation of the canal, its 
vulnerable points, its guards and the patrol routes 
of those guards. Koenig selected men whom he 



More Bomb Plots 129 

detailed to watch the guards, and he fixed on sat- 
isfactory storage places for his explosives. The 
party then returned to Niagara Falls and later 
to New York. 

They did not know that they were being trailed. 
All three men had been under surveillance for 
nearly a year, and after their migrations near the 
canal, the guard was reenforced. It became im- 
possible to carry out the plan. A few weeks later 
the detectives who were shadowing Koenig no- 
ticed that George Fuchs, a relative whom he em- 
ployed at a meagre salary, was seldom seen in 
his company. They sought Fuchs out and plied 
him with refreshment. A few glasses of beer 
drew out his story: Koenig owed him $15, and 
he therefore bore no affection for Koenig. The 
detectives turned him over to Superintendent Off- 
ley of the Department of Justice, who sympa- 
thized with Fuchs to such an extent that the lat- 
ter retailed enough evidence of the Welland plot 
to secure Koenig's indictment on five counts. 
Thus did a debt of thirty pieces of silver — in this 
case half-dollars — rob the Hamburg-American 
Line of a six-foot, 200-pound detective, and the 
German spy system in America of one of its 
roughest characters, for, thanks to Fuchs' revela- 
tions, Koenig was indicted for a violation of Sec- 
tion 13 of the Penal Code. 



180 The German Secret Service in America 

Herald Square, New York, was the center of 
open-air oratory every evening until after Amer- 
ica entered the war. Those who had stood and 
fought their verbal battles during the day about 
the bulletin board of the New York Herald re- 
mained at night to bellow to the idle passersby 
along Broadway, and one night Felix Galley, a 
leather-lunged contractor, gave an impassioned 
discourse justifying Germany's entrance into the 
war. When the meeting broke up he was fol- 
lowed home by one who rather passed his ex- 
pectations as a convert. 

The stranger was Harry Newton. He had 
been employed in a munitions plant in St. Cath- 
arine's, Ontario. He suggested to Galley that he 
would take any orders for arson which the Ger- 
mans had in mind, and recommended that as proof 
of his ability he would oblige with a dynamiting 
of the Brooks Locomotive Works at Dunkirk, 
N. Y., for a retainer of $5,000. Or, he said, he 
could arrange to destroy the Federal building or 
Police Headquarters. This was more than the 
German had bargained for, and assuring Newton 
that he would first have to consult the "chief," he 
ran straightway to the police and in great agita- 
tion told what had happened. Captain Tunney, 
of the Bomb Squad, assigned Detective Sergeant 
George Barnitz to the case. 



More Bomb Plots 131 

The detective, posing as a German agent, 
found Newton at Mills Hotel No. .3, and opened 
negotiations with him. After several talks, they 
met on the afternoon of April 19, 1916, at Grand 
Street and the Bowery. Barnitz said: "Now, 
Fm in a hurry — haven't much time to discuss all 
this. You say you're in the business strictly for 
the money. The chief is willing to pay you 
$5,000 if you will smash the Welland Canal or 
blow up the Brooks Locomotive Works or burn 
the McKinnon, Dash Company's plant at St. 
Catharine's. But how do we know you won't de- 
mand more from us after you are paid? Maybe 
you'll want more cash for your assistants." 

Newton was quick to reply that he worked 
alone and wouldn't trust any assistant. He was 
anxious to start with the Brooks "job" at Dun- 
kirk and told Barnitz he had left in the baggage- 
room of the New York Central Railroad at Buf- 
falo a suitcase containing powerful bombs. (The 
suitcase actually contained a loaded 4-inch shell, 
with percussion cap and fuse.) It would be nec- 
essary only for him to go to Buffalo, get the suit- 
case, hasten to Dunkirk and blow up the locomo- 
tive works. 

"Fine," said Barnitz. "You are under arrest." 

Newton stared a moment, then laughed. "You 
New York cops are a damned sight smarter than 



132 The German Secret Service in America 

I ever thought you were," he said, "and you made 
me think you were a German !" 

At Police Headquarters he described his plan 
for blowing up the Welland Canal. Having 
worked in a town located on the canal, he was 
familiar with the position of the locks. "It would 
be a simple matter," he said. "You see these 
buttons I am wearing on my watch chain and in 
my coat lapel. The plain gilt one reads 'On His 
Majesty's Service.' The blue and white one 
reads 'McKinnon, Dash Company, Munitions. 
On Service.' Those buttons are passes that 
would let me into any munitions plant in Canada 
or this country. They would pass me through 
the guards of the canal. It would be easy for me 
to pretend to be a workman, get a boat and, car- 
rying a dinner pail, filled with explosives, to pick 
out a weak spot in the canal works and destroy 
the whole business. 

"It would be a cinch to burn the McKinnon, 
Dash plant. I could go back to work there as 
foreman. Any Saturday night I could be the last 
to leave. Before going I could saturate flooring 
with benzine and put a lighted candle where 
within a half hour or so the flame would reach 
the benzine." 

Newton also suggested his willingness to dyna- 
mite the banking house of J. P. Morgan & Co., 



More Bomb Plots 133 

at 23 Wall Street, or to dynamite the banker's 
automobile. He had a series of postcards in his 
own handwriting, which, in case he was hired 
for a dynamiting, were to be mailed from distant 
points every day while he was on the assignment, 
in order to establish an alibi. 

He was an irresponsible person, and one who 
could not be said to be under orders from the 
attaches in lower Broadway. Yet he is typical 
of the restless and lawless floating population of 
which the Germans made excellent tools. When 
he heard Galley he promptly offered his services ; 
his boldness would have made him a capital de- 
stroying agent, and it was fired by the speech in 
Herald Square, a speech inspired from Berlin. 
Here was his opportunity to make money. Thus, 
by a word of encouragement, by the whisper of 
"big money" to discharged, dissatisfied or dis- 
loyal employees of munitions plants, the seed of 
German violence was sown everywhere. Men 
who were well dressed and of good appearance 
would be remarked if they prowled about fac- 
tory districts ; men must be employed who would 
fade into the drab landscape by the very common- 
placeness of their clothing and action. They 
could be hired cheaply and swiftly disowned, 
these Newtons! 

The New York Times on November 3, 19 17, 



134 The German Secret Service in America 

recapitulated the damage wrought by German 
incendiarism as follows: 

"A graphic idea of what the fire losses in the 
United States owe to the work of war incendia- 
ries may be gained from consideration of the fact 
that the total fire insurance paid in the United 
States in 1915, according to the figures of the 
National Board of Fire Underwriters, was 
$153,000,000. It is estimated that 60 per cent, 
of the loss by fires in this country is represented 
in insurance. Therefore, the total fire loss in the 
United States in 191 5 was something over $200,- 
000,000. Of the $153,000,000 paid out by the in- 
surance companies, $6,200,000 was represented 
by incendiary fires. A total of $62,000,000 was 
charged to fires from unknown causes. 

"In 1916 the total jumped by 20 per cent., 
meaning an increase of about $40,000,000. The 
biggest items in this loss were those sustained in 
munition fires and explosions. Black Tom holds 
the record with a loss of $11,000,000; there was 
the Kingsland explosion, the Penn's Grove explo- 
sion, and others, all generally admitted to be the 
work of spies, which caused losses running into 
millions. 

"It was estimated yesterday by an insurance 
official that the incendiary loss in 191 6 was easily 
$25,000,000, or $15,000,000 above normal. And 



More Bomb Plots 135 

these figures take into consideration only fires 
where the origin was proved to be incendiary. 
On the books of the underwriters the Black Tom 
munitions fire is not listed as incendiary, because 
it was never legally proved that a German spy set 
it going. 

"This increase in losses for 1916 when the big 
munition explosions occurred, derives significance 
in the discussion of losses by spy fires since this 
country entered the war, because the figures of 
fire losses in the United States for 1917 may reach 
$300,000,000, or a larger increase over 1916 than 
1916 losses showed over 191 5. An estimate 
made yesterday by the head of a fire insurance 
company shows that if the average of the losses 
in the first seven months of the year is maintained 
until Jan. 1 the total would reach well above 
$250,000,000, and with the increases of the past 
few months might easily total $300,000,000 as 
the cost of the American ash heaps for 1917." 

How did the Germans know where munitions 
were being manufactured? Rumor fled swiftly 
through the labor districts, and the news was re- 
ported through the regular channels of espionage, 
cleared through the consulates and German busi- 
ness offices, and forwarded to the attaches and 
the Embassy. But the collection of information 
did not stop there; it was verified from another 



136 The German Secret Service in America 

source — a serviceable factor in the general system 
of espionage. 

The American manufacturer shared his na- 
tion's predilection for talking at meal-time. As 
the war contracts were distributed about the coun- 
try, every machine shop worthy of the name be- 
came a "munitions plant" and the romance of hav- 
ing a part in the war strained the discretion of 
most of America's war bridegrooms ; they simply 
"had to tell some one" ; not infrequently this some 
one was a reliable intimate, sitting across a res- 
taurant table at lunch. 

There was in America an organization bearing 
a title which suggested a neutral origin, but 
whose officers' names, down even unto the official 
physician, were undeniably German. It was 
ostensibly for the mutual benefit of the foreign- 
born waiters, chefs and pantrymen who com- 
posed its membership. But its real significance 
was indicated by the location of its branches (its 
headquarters were in New York). Trenton, 
New Jersey, for example, was not a "good hotel 
town," and foreign waiters usually are to be 
found in a town which boasts a hotel managed 
by metropolitan interests, and supplied with a for- 
eign staff; but Trenton was a munitions center, 
and there was a branch of this association there. 
Schenectady, the home of the General Electric 



More Bomb Plots 137 

Company, had no first-class hotel; there was a 
branch of the association in Schenectady. Con- 
versely, numerous cities whose hotels were 
manned by foreign waiters and cooks had no 
branches. The organization was founded in 
Dresden in 1877. 

Many a confidence passed across a table was 
intercepted by the acute ears of a German spy. 
Members of the Anglo-French Loan Commission 
who were staying at the Biltmore in 19 14 were 
served by a German agent in a waiter's uniform. 
It would have gone well for America and the 
preparations of supplies for her later Allies if 
there had been posted in every hotel dining-room 
the French admonition, 

"Taisez-vous ! lis s'ecoutent !" 



CHAPTER X 

FRANZ VON RINTELEN 

The leak in the National City Bank — The Minnehaha 
— Von Rintelen's training — His return to America — His 
aims — His funds — Smuggling oil — The Krag-Joergensen 
rifles — Von Rintelen's flight and capture. 

There was a suggestion in the newspapers of 
dates immediately following Paul Koenig's arrest 
that the authorities had been lax in allowing the 
Germans to have later access to the safe in his 
private office in the Hamburg- American building. 
As a matter of fact the contents of the safe were 
well known to the authorities — how, it is not nec- 
essary to say. The multitudinous notes and ref- 
erence data kept by the industrious "P. K." un- 
covered a plentiful German source of information 
of munitions. 

They knew the factories in which war materials 
were being turned out. They knew the numbers 
of the freight cars into which the materials were 
loaded for shipment to the waterfronts. They 
knew the ships into which those cargoes were 
consigned. How they knew was revealed by 




a 

o 
> 



Franz Von Eintelen 139 

Koenig' s secretary, Metzler, after he had been 
arrested in the second Welland episode. 

Down in Wall Street, in the foreign depart- 
ment of the National City Bank, there was a 
young German named Frederick Schleindl. He 
had been in the United States for several years, 
and had been employed by various bankers, one 
of whom recommended him to the National City 
Bank shortly after the outbreak of war. In the 
foreign department he had access to cables from 
the Allies concerning the purchase of munitions. 
It was customary to pay manufacturers for their 
completed orders when the bank received a bill of 
lading showing their shipment by railroad or 
their delivery at points of departure. Close 
familiarity with such bills of lading and cable- 
grams gave Schleindl an up-to-the-minute survey 
of the production of supplies. 

In late 1914 Schleindl registered with the Ger- 
man consul in New York, setting down his name 
and address as liable to call for special service. 
In May, 191 5, he was directed by the consul to 
meet a certain person at the Hotel Manhattan; 
the unknown proved to be Koenig, who had been 
informed of Schleindl's occupation by the alert 
German consul. Playing on the youth's patriot- 
ism and greed, Koenig agreed to pay him $25 a 
week for confidential information from the bank. 



140 The German Secret Service in America 

From that time forward Schleindl reported regu- 
larly to Koenig. Nearly every evening a meet- 
ing occurred in the office in the Hamburg-Ameri- 
can building, and Koenig and Metzler would 
spend many hours a night in copying the letters, 
cables and shipping documents. In the morning 
they would return the originals to Schleindl on 
his way to work — he made it his custom to arrive 
early at the bank — and the papers would be re- 
stored to their proper files when the business day 
began. 

On December 17, 1915, Schleindl was arrested. 
In his pocket were two documents, enough to 
convict him of having stolen information : one a 
duplicate of a cablegram from the Banque Beige 
pour Etrangers to the National City Bank relat- 
ing to a shipment of 2,000,000 rifles which was 
then being handled by the Hudson Trust Com- 
pany; the other a cablegram from the Russian 
Government authorizing the City Bank to place 
some millions of dollars to the credit of Colonel 
Golejewski, the Russian naval attache and pur- 
chasing agent. From a German standpoint, of 
course, both were highly significant. Schleindl's 
arrest caused considerable uneasiness in Wall 
Street, and other banking houses who had been 
dealing in munitions "looked unto themselves" 
lest there be similar cracks through which infor- 



Franz Von Rintelen 141 

mation might sift to Berlin. There had been 
many such. Koenig was tried on the charge of 
having bought stolen information, and convicted, 
but sentence was suspended, although the United 
States already looked back on two years of water- 
front conspiracies to destroy Allied shipping. 

The City Bank episode gave a clue to the source 
of those conspiracies, by the white light which it 
cast upon an explosion in hold number 2 of the 
steamship Minnehaha on July 4, 191 5. Thou- 
sands of magnetos were stored there destined for 
automobiles at the front. The only person be- 
sides the officers of the bank and of the magneto 
factory who could have known of the ship in 
which they were transported was the man who 
wrote the letter to the bank enclosing the bill of 
lading for the shipment. Naturally the officers 
were not suspected of circulating the news; the 
leak therefore must have occurred in handling the 
letter. That theory was a strong scent, made no 
less pungent by the activities in America of one 
Franz von Rintelen. 

Rumor has credited Franz von Rintelen with 
relationship to the house of Hohenzollern. Back- 
stairs gossip called him the Kaiser's own son — a 
stigma which he hardly deserved, as his face bore 
no resemblance to the architecture of the Hohen- 
zollern countenance. It was one of strong aqui- 



142 The German Secret Service in America 

line curves; with a coat of swarthy grease paint 
he would have made an acceptable Indian, except 
for his tight, thin lips. The muscles of his jaws 
were forever playing under the skin — he had a 
tense, nervous habit of gritting his teeth. From 
under his pale eyebrows came a sharp look; it 
contrasted strangely with the hollow, burnt-out 
ferocity and fright which peered out of the tired 
eyes of his fellow prisoners when he was finally 
tried. He had a wiry strength and easy carriage. 
If he had not been a spy, von Rintelen would have 
made an excellent athlete. 

Like Boy-Ed he had a thorough gymnasium 
training. He specialized in finance and econom- 
ics, entered the navy, and became captain-lieuten- 
ant. At the end of his period of service he went 
to London and obtained employment in a banking 
house. He then went to New York, where he 
was admitted to Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co., and 
found time during his first stay in America to 
serve as Germany's naval representative at the 
ceremonies commemorating John Paul Jones. 
The German Embassy gave him entree wherever 
he turned. He was a member of the New York 
Yacht Club, was received at Newport and in Fifth 
Avenue as a polished and agreeable person who 
spoke English, French and Spanish as fluently as 
his native tongue, and he acquired a broad first- 



Franz Von Bintelen 143 

hand knowledge of American financial principles 
and methods. He left New York long before the 
war, saying he was going to open Mexican and 
South American branches of a German bank. 
When he returned to Berlin in 1909, he was well 
qualified to sit in council with Tirpitz and the 
navy group and advise them on the development 
of the German Secret Service in America. 
American acquaintances who visited Berlin he 
received with marked hospitality, and some he 
even introduced to his august friend, the Crown 
Prince. 

In January, 191 5, von Rintelen, then a director 
of the Deutsche Bank, and the National Bank fur 
Deutschland, and a man of corresponding wealth, 
was commissioned to go to America, to buy cot- 
ton, rubber and copper, and to prevent the Allies 
from receiving munitions. So he went to Amer- 
ica. And from his arrival in New York until his 
departure from that port, he threw sand in the 
smooth-running machinery of the organized Ger- 
man spy system. 

He eluded the vigilance of the Allies by using 
a false passport. His sister Emily had married 
a Swiss named Gasche. Erasing the "y" on her 
passport he journeyed in safety to England as 
"Emil V. Gasche," a harmless Swiss, who ob- 
served a great deal about England's method of 



144 The German Secret Service in America 

receiving munitions. Then he evaporated to 
Norway. His arrival in the United States was 
forecast by a wireless message which he addressed 
from his ship on April 3, 191 5, asking an Ameri- 
can friend of his to meet him at the pier. The 
American owned a factory in Cambrai, France, 
which had been closed by the German invasion on 
August 29, 19 14. The American had hastened to 
Berlin in late 1914 and asked his friend Rintelen 
to see that the plant be opened. Rintelen had 
succeeded, and was come now to break the good 
news, knowing perfectly well that the American 
would be under deep obligation and would secure 
any introductions for him which he might need. 
When the ship docked, the friend was not there, 
for some casual reason. But Rintelen, always 
suspicious, hired a detective, who spent a week 
investigating; then the friend was discovered, and 
became Rintelen's grateful assistant. 

So it happened that "Emil V. Gasche," the 
harmless Swiss, dropped out of sight for the time 
being, and von Rintelen assumed the parts of "Dr. 
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." "Dr. Jekyll" visited the 
Yacht Club and called upon wealthy friends, prov- 
ing a more charming, more delightful von Rin- 
telen than ever. He met influential business men 
who were selling supplies to the Allies. He was 
presented to society matrons and debutantes 



Franz Von Eintelen 145 

whom he had use for. To these he was Herr von 
Rintelen, in America on an important financial 
mission. "Mr. Hyde" sought information from 
von Bernstorff, Dr. Albert, von Papen, Boy-Ed, 
Captain Tauscher and George Sylvester Viereck 
about the production of war supplies. Astounded 
by what he learned from them and had corrobo- 
rated from other sources, he began to realize how 
utterly he had misjudged America's potential re- 
sources and what a blunder he had made in his 
predictions to the General War Staff. He saw 
with a chilling vividness the capacity of America 
to hand war materials to the Allies', and her rap- 
idly increasing facilities to turn out greater quan- 
tities of ammunition and bullets. The facts he 
obtained struck him with especial force because 
of his knowledge of the greater strategy. It is 
upon a basis of the supplies of munitions in the 
Allied countries, particularly Russia, as von Rin- 
telen knew them, that his acts are best judged 
and upon this basis only can sane motives be as- 
signed to the rash projects which he launched. 

When he arrived in New York the German 
drive on Paris had failed because in two months 
the Germans had used up ammunition they con- 
fidently expected to last three times as long; the 
English and French in the west could not take up 
the offensive because ammunition was not being 



146 The German Secret Service in America 

turned out fast enough; the Russian drive into 
Germany and Austria would soon fail for lack of 
arms and bullets. In the winter and spring of 
1 91 5 the Russians had made a drive into Galicia 
and Austria, hurling the Austro-German armies 
back. They advanced victoriously through the 
first range of the Carpathian mountains until 
May. Meantime the German General Staff, as 
von Rintelen knew, was preparing for a retaliat- 
ing offensive. The War Staff knew Russia's 
limited capacity to produce arms and ammunition, 
knew that during the winter, with the port of 
Archangel closed by ice, her only source for new 
supplies lay in the single-track Siberian railway 
bringing materials from Japan. Rintelen real- 
ized that by spring the Russian resources had been 
well nigh exhausted and he resolved that they 
must be shut off completely. He knew that Eng- 
land and France could not help. But spring had 
already come, and the ships were sailing for Arch- 
angel laden with American shells. 

Von Rintelen's reputation was at stake. The 
work for which he had been so carefully trained 
was bound to fail unless he acted quickly. He 
exchanged many wireless communications with 
his superiors in Berlin — messages that looked like 
harmless expressions between his wife and him- 
self, messages in which the names of American 



Franz Von Rintelen 147 

officers who had been in Berlin were used both as 
code words and as a means to impress their genu- 
ineness upon the American censor. He received 
in reply still greater authority than he had on the 
eve of his departure from Germany. In his 
quick, staccato fashion he often boasted (and 
there is foundation for part of what he said) that 
he had been sent to America by the General Staff, 
backed by "$50,000,000, yes $100,000,000"; that 
he was an agent plenipotentiary and extraordi- 
nary, ready to take any measure on land and sea 
to stop the making of munitions, to halt their 
transportation at the factory or at the seaboard. 
He mapped out a campaign, remarkable in its 
detail, scope, recklessness and utter disregard of 
American institutions. 

Germany made her first mistake in giving him 
a roving commission. Germany was desperate, 
or she would have restricted von Rintelen to cer- 
tain well-defined enterprises. Instead he ran 
afoul of the military and naval attaches on more 
than one occasion, offended them, and did more 
to hinder than to help their own plans. 

In early April he made his financial arrange- 
ments with the Trans-Atlantic Trust Company, 
where he was known by his own name. Money 
was transferred from Berlin through large Ger- 
man business houses, and he deposited $800,000 



148 The German Secret Service in America 

in the Trans-Atlantic and millions among other 
banks. He rented an office in the trust company 
building, and had his telephone run through the 
trust company switchboard. He registered with 
the county clerk to do business as the "E. V. Gib- 
bon Company ; purchasers of supplies" and signed 
his name to the registry as "Francis von Rinte- 
len." In the office of the E. V. Gibbon Company 
he received the forces whom he proceeded to mo- 
bilize; he was known to them as "Fred Hansen." 
If he wanted a naval reservist he called on Boy- 
Ed ; if an army reservist was required von Papen 
sent him to "Plansen." Boy-Ed gave him data 
on ship sailings, von Papen on munitions plants, 
Koenig on secret service. 

His first task was to buy supplies and ship them 
to Germany. Fie boasted that there was no such 
thing as a British blockade. Using his pseudo- 
nyms of Gibbon and Hansen he made large pur- 
chases and with the aid of Captain Gustave Stein- 
berg, a naval reservist, he chartered ships and dis- 
patched them under false manifests to Italy and 
Norway, where their cargoes could be readily 
smuggled into Germany. Through Steinberg he 
importuned a chemist, Dr. Walter T. Scheele, to 
soak fertilizer in lubricating oil for shipment to 
the Fatherland, where the valuable oil could be 
easily extracted. Through the same intermedi- 



Franz Von Eintelen 149 

ary von Rintelen gave Dr. Scheele $20,000 to ship 
a cargo of munitions under a false manifest as 
"farm implements" ; Dr. Scheele kept the $20,000 
and actually shipped a cargo of farm machinery. 
Rintelen Vnext venture attracted some unpleas- 
ant attention. The United States Government 
had condemned some 350,000 Krag-Joergensen 
rifles, which it refused to sell to any of the bellig- 
erents. Rintelen cast a fond eye in their direc- 
tion. President Wilson had told a banker: 
"You will get those rifles only over my dead 
body." Rintelen heard, however, that by bribing 
certain officials he could obtain the guns, so he 
sent out agents to learn what they would cost, 
and found a man who said he could buy them for 
$17,826,000, part of which was to be used for 
effective bribery. "So close am I to the Presi- 
dent," said the intermediary, "that two days after 
I deposit the money in the bank you can dandle 
his grandchild on your knee!" But just when 
the negotiations were growing bright, Rintelen 
was told that the man who proposed to sell him 
the rifles was a secret agent from another govern- 
ment. A certain "Dr. Alfred Meyer" was known 
to have been groping for those rifles, and the 
newspapers and government officials became sud- 
denly interested in his real identity. A dowdy 
woman's implication reached a reporter's ears; 



150 The German Secret Service in America 

presently the newspapers burst out in the "dis- 
covery" that "Dr. Alfred Meyer" was none other 
than Dr. Meyer-Gerhardt, a German Red Cross 
envoy then in the United States. Like the pop- 
ping of a machine gun, "correct versions of the 
facts" were published: "Dr. Meyer-Gerhardt 
denied vigorously that he was 'Dr. Alfred 
Meyer,' " then " 'Dr. Alfred Meyer' was known 
to have left the United States on the same ship 
with Dr. Meyer-Gerhardt," then "an American 
citizen came forward anonymously and said that 
he had posed as 'Dr. Alfred Meyer' in order to 
test the good faith of the Government." 

This last announcement may have been true. 
It was made to a New York Sun reporter by a 
German, Karl Schimmel, who professed his alle- 
giance to the United States, and by the "Ameri- 
can citizen" who said he had posed as "Dr. Al- 
fred Meyer." It may have been made to shield 
Rintelen himself, for the "American citizen" was 
an employe of a German newspaper in New York, 
a friend of Rintelen's, a friend of Schimmel's and 
Schimmel himself was in von Rintelen's pay. 

Let a pack of reporters loose on a half dozen 
tangents and they will probably scratch the truth. 
A Tribune man heard a whisper of the facts and 
set out on a hunt for "two Germans, Meyer and 
Hansen, who have been acting funny." He 



Franz Von Rintelen 151 

frightened the personnel right out of the office of 
the E. V. Gibbon Company. Captain Steinberg 
fled to Germany with a trunkful of reports on 
the necessity of concerted action to stop the ship- 
ment of munitions to the Allies, and Rintelen mi- 
grated to an office in the Woolworth Building. 
Some one heard of his activities there and he was 
evicted, taking final refuge in the Liberty Tower, 
in the office of Andrew M. Meloy, who had been 
in Germany to interest the German government 
in a scheme similar to Rintelen's own. In Me- 
loy's office Rintelen posed as "E. V. Gates" — 
preserving the shadow of his identity as "Emil 
V. Gasche." So effective was his disappearance 
from the public view, that he was reported to 
have gone abroad as a secretary, and he sat in 
the tower and chuckled, and sent messages by 
wireless to Berlin through Sayville, and cable- 
grams to Berlin through England and Holland, 
and enjoyed all the sensations of a man attending 
a triple funeral in his honor. "Meyer," "Han- 
sen" and "Gasche" were all dead, and yet, here 
was Rintelen! 

Although his sojourn in New York covered a 
period which was the peak of the curve of Ger- 
man atrocities in the United States, Rintelen was 
a fifth wheel. No man came to America to ac- 
complish more, and no man accomplished less. 



152 The German Secret Service in America 

No German agent had his boldness of project, and 
no German executive met a more ignominious 
fate. Whatever he touched with his golden wand 
turned to dross. He was hoodwinked here and 
there by his own agents, and frustrated by the 
vigilance of the Allied and the United States gov- 
ernments. He has been introduced here because 
of his connection with subsequent events, and yet 
this picturesque figure played the major part in 
not one successful venture. 

Four months he passed in America, until it be- 
came too small for him. In August the capture 
of Dr. Albert's portfolio and the publication of 
certain of its contents frightened Rintelen, and 
he applied for a passport as "Edward V. Gates, 
an American citizen of Miller sville, Pa.," but he 
did not dare claim it. Though he had bought 
tickets under the alias, and had had drafts made 
payable in that name, he did not occupy the 
"Gates" cabin on the Noordam, but at the last 
minute engaged passage under the renascent 
name of "Emil V. Gasche," the harmless Swiss. 
He eluded the Federal agents, and sailed safely 
to Falmouth, England, where, after a search of 
the ship, and an excellent attempt to bluff it 
through, he finally surrendered to the British au- 
thorities as a prisoner-of-war. Meloy and his 
secretary were captured with him. 



Franz Von Rintelen 153 

Rintelen was returned to the United States in 
1916. He was convicted in 1917 and 1918 on 
successive charges of conspiracy to violate the 
Sherman Anti-Trust law, to obtain a fraudulent 
passport, and to destroy merchant ships — which 
combined to sentence him to a year in the Tombs 
and nine years in a Federal prison. 



CHAPTER XI 

SHIP BOMBS 

Mobilizing destroying agents — The plotters in Hoboken 
— Von Kleist's arrest and confession — The Kirk Oszvald 
trial — Further explosions — The Arabic — Robert Fay — 
His arrest — The ship plots decrease. 

The reader will recall a circular quoted in 
Chapter VIII, and issued November 18, 1914, 
from German Naval Headquarters, mobilizing 
all destroying agents in harbors overseas. 

On January 3, 191 5, there was an explosion on 
board the munitions ship Orion, lying in Erie 
Basin, a part of New York harbor. On Febru- 
ary 6 a bomb was found in the cargo of the Han- 
nington. On February 27 the Carlton caught 
fire at sea. On April 20 two bombs were found 
in the cargo of the Lord Erne. One week later 
the same discovery was made in the hold of the 
Devon City. All of which accounts for the fol- 
lowing charge: 

"George D. Barnitz, being duly sworn, deposes and 
says ... on information and belief that on the first day 

154 



Ship Bombs 155 

of January, 191 5, and on every day thereafter down to 
and including the 13th day of April, 1916, the defendants 
Walter T. Scheele, Charles von Kleist, Otto Wolpert, 
Ernst Becker, (Charles) Karbade, the first name Charles 
being fictitious, the true first name of defendant being 
unknown, (Frederick) Praedel . . . (Wilhelm) Paradis 
. . . Eno Bode and Carl Schmidt . . . did unlawfully, 
feloniously and corruptly conspire ... to manufacture 
bombs filled with chemicals and explosives and to place 
said bombs . . . upon vessels belonging to others and 
laden with moneys, goods and merchandise. . . ." 

Ninety-one German ships were confined to 
American harbors by the activities of the British 
fleet, ranging from the Neptun, of 197 tons, in 
San Francisco Bay, to the Vaterland, of 54,000 
tons, the largest vessel on the seven seas, tied up 
to accrue barnacles at her Hoboken pier, and 
later, as the Leviathan, to transport American 
troops to France. Every one of the ninety-one 
ships was a nest of German agents. Only a mod- 
erate watch was kept on their crews, and there 
were many restless men among them. Every 
man aboard was liable to command from Captain 
Boy-Ed, for the German merchant marine was 
part of the formal naval organization. The in- 
terned sailors found shortly that they could be 
of distinct service to their country without stir- 
ring from their ships. 

Not far from the North German Lloyd piers 



156 The German Secret Service in America 

in Hoboken lived Captain Charles von Kleist, 67 
years old, a chemist and former German army- 
officer. One day there came to him one who 
spoke the German tongue and who said he came 
from Wolf von Igel, in von Papen's office. Those 
were good credentials, especially since the gentle- 
man was inquiring on von Igel's behalf whether 
Kleist needed any money in the work he was 
doing. The polite caller returned a few days 
later with another man, who spoke no German. 
Von Kleist asked whether he was also from the 
Fatherland, and was told no, but "we have to use 
all kinds of people in our business — that's how we 
fool these Yankees !" Von Kleist laughed heart- 
ily, and wagged his head, and went out in the 
garden and dug up a bomb-case and showed the 
visitors how it had been made. The visitors were 
Detectives Barth and Barnitz. 

They assured Kleist that von Igel wanted to 
know precisely what he and his associates were 
doing, so no money might be paid to the wrong 
parties. The aged captain wrote out a memo- 
randum of his activities, which he signed, and the 
detectives proposed a trip to Coney Island as an 
evidence of good faith, so the three had a pleas- 
ant afternoon at the Hotel Shelburne, and the 
officers then suggested : "Let's go up and see the 
chief." "Chief" to von Kleist meant von Igel; 



Ship Bombs 157 

he agreed, and was taken gently into the arms of 
the chief of detectives. 

He implicated, as he sat there answering 
questions, Captain Eno Bode, pier superintendent 
of the Hamburg-American Line, Captain Otto 
Wolpert, pier superintendent of the Atlas Line, 
and Ernst Becker, an electrician on the North 
German Lloyd liner Friedrich der Grosse, tied up 
at Hoboken. The other conspirators were in- 
duced to come to New York, and were arrested 
at once. Bode and Wolpert, powerful bullies of 
Paul Koenig's own stamp, proved defiant in the 
extreme. Becker, knowing no word of English, 
was pathetically courteous and ready to answer. 
But it remained for von Kleist to supply the nar- 
rative. 

Becker, working on the sunny deck of the 
Friedrich der Grosse, had made numerous bomb 
cases, rolling sheet lead into a cylinder, and in- 
serting in the tube a cup-shaped aluminum parti- 
tion. These containers he turned over to Dr. 
Walter Scheele at his "New Jersey Agricultural 
Company," where he filled one compartment with 
nitroglycerine, the other with sulphuric acid. 
Scheele supplied the mechanics with sheet lead 
for the purpose. The bombs were then sealed 
and packed in sand for distribution to various 
German gathering places, such as, for example, 



158 The German Secret Service in America 

the Turn Verein in the Brooklyn Labor Lyceum. 
Wolpert appeared there at a meeting one night 
and berated the Germans present for talking too 
much and acting too little ; he wanted results, he 
said. Eugene Reister, the proprietor of the 
place, said that shortly afterward Walter Uhde 
and one Klein (who died before the police reached 
him) had taken away a bundle of bombs from the 
Turn Verein and had placed them on the Lusi- 
tania, just before her last voyage, and added that 
Klein, when he heard of the destruction of the 
ship, expressed regret that he had done it. Karl 
Schimmel — the same who had negotiated for the 
Krag rifles — said later to Reister: "I really put 
bombs on that boat, but I don't believe that fellow 
Klein ever did." 

Following Kleist's information, agents of the 
Department of Justice and New York police in- 
spected the Friedrich der Grosse, and found quan- 
tities of chlorate of potash and other chemicals. 
They brought back with them also Garbode (men- 
tioned in the charge as "Karbade"), Paradis and 
Praedel, fourth engineers on the ship, who had 
assisted in making the bombs, and Carl Schmidt, 
the chief engineer. All of the group were impli- 
cated in the plot to the complete satisfaction of 
a jury which concluded their cases in May, 19 17, 
by convicting them of "conspiracy to destroy ships 



Ship Bombs 159 

through the use of fire bombs placed thereon." 
Kleist and Schmidt received sentences of two 
years each in Atlanta Penitentiary and were each 
fined $5,000; Becker, Karbade, Praedel and Para- 
dis were fined $500 apiece and sentenced to six 
months in prison. Dr. Scheele fled from justice, 
and was arrested in March, 1918, in Havana. A 
liberal supply of vicious chemicals and explo- 
sives discovered in his "New Jersey Agricultural 
Company" implicated him thoroughly, if the evi- 
dence given by his fellows had not already done 
so. When he was finally captured he faced two 
federal indictments : one with Steinberg and von 
Igel for smuggling lubricating oil out of the coun- 
try as fertilizer, under false customs manifests; 
the other the somewhat more criminal charge of 
bombing. 

On April 29, 191 5, the Cressington caught fire 
at sea. Three days later, in the hold of the Kirk 
Oswald, a sailor found a bomb tucked away in a 
hiding place where its later explosion would have 
started a serious fire. So it came about that 
when the four lesser conspirators of the fire-bomb 
plot had served their six months' sentences, they 
were at once rearrested on the specific charge of 
having actually planted that bomb in the Kirk 
Oswald. The burly dock captains, Bode and 
Wolpert, who had blustered their innocence in 



160 The German Secret Service in America 

the previous trial, and had succeeded in securing 
heavy bail from the Hamburg-American Line 
pending separate trials for themselves, were 
nipped this time with evidence which let none slip 
through. Rintelen was haled from his cell to 
answer to his part in the Kirk Oswald affair, and 
the jury, in January, 1918, declared the nine plot- 
ters "guilty as charged" and Judge Howe sen- 
tenced them to long terms in prison. Rintelen, 
alone of the group, as they sat in court, had an 
air of anything but wretched fanatic querulous- 
ness. He followed the proceedings closely, and 
once took the trial into his own hands in a flash 
of temper when the State kept referring to the 
loss of the Lusitania. It went hard with the 
nobleman to be herded into a common American 
court with a riff-raff of hireling crooks and 
treated with impartial justice. In Germany it 
never could have happened! 

If those trials had occurred in May, 191 5, the 
history of the transport of arms and shells would 
not have been marred by such entries as these : 

May 8 — Bankdale; two bombs found in cargo. 
May 13 — Samland; afire at sea. 
May 21 — Anglo-Saxon; bomb found aboard. 
June 2 — Strathzvay; afire at sea. 

July 4 — Minnehaha; bomb exploded at sea. (The 
magnetos.) 



Ship Bombs 161 

July 13 — Touraine; afire at sea. 
July 14— -Lord Downshire; afire. 
July 20 — Knutford; afire in hold. 
July 24 — Craigside; five fires in hold. 
July 27 — Arabic; two bombs found aboard. 
Aug. 9 — Asuncion de Larrinaga; afire at sea. 
Aug. 13 — W Mist on; bombs in cargo. 
Aug. 27 — Lighter Dixie; fire while loading. 

On August 31 the White Star liner Arabic, nine- 
teen hours out of Liverpool was torpedoed by a 
German submarine and sank in eleven minutes, 
taking 39 lives, of which two were American. 
Germany, on September 9, declared that the 
U-boat commander attacked the Arabic without 
warning, contrary to his instructions, but only 
after he was convinced that the liner was trying 
to ram him; the Imperial Government expressed 
regret for the loss of American lives, but dis- 
claimed any liability for indemnity, and sug- 
gested arbitration. On October 5, however, the 
government in Berlin had changed its tune to the 
extent of issuing a note expressing regret for 
having sunk the ship, disavowing the act of the 
submarine commander, and assuring the United 
States that new orders to submarines were so 
strict that a recurrence of any such action was 
"considered out of the question." If the cargoes 
could be fired at sea, no submarine issue need be 



162 The German Secret Service in America 

raised. And so fires and bombs continued to be 
discovered on ships just as consistently as before. 
The log, resumed, runs thus : 

Sept. i — Rotterdam; fire at sea. 

Sept. 7 — Santa Anna; fire at sea. 

Sept. 29 — San Guglielmo; dynamite found on pier. 

Now von Rintelen's handiwork was revealed in 
the adventures of Robert Fay, or "Fae," as he 
was known in the Fatherland. In spite of the 
imaginative quality of the enterprise, and the 
additional guilt which it heaped upon the execu- 
tives of the spy system, it was not successful. 
There were vibrant moments, though, when only 
the mobilization of police from two states and 
special agents from the Secret Service and De- 
partment of Justice averted what would have 
developed into a profitable method of destroying 
ships. 

Lieutenant Robert Fay was born in Cologne, 
where he lived until 1902. In that year he mi- 
grated to Canada, where he worked on a farm, 
and later to Chicago, where he was employed as 
a bookkeeper until 1905. He then returned to 
Germany for his military service, and went to 
work again in Cologne, in the office of Thomas 
Cook & Sons. After a period in a Mannheim 
machine shop he went home and devoted himself 



Ship Bombs 163 

to certain mechanical inventions, and was at work 
upon them when he was called out for war serv- 
ice on August I, 1914. 

His regiment went into the ti-enches, and the 
lieutenant had some success in dynamiting a 
French position. Conniving with a superior of- 
ficer, he deserted his command, and was sent to 
America by a German reputed to be the head of 
the secret service, one Jonnersen. Jonnersen 
gave Fay 20,000 marks for expenses in carrying 
out a plan to stop shipments of munitions from 
America, and Fay arrived in New York April 23, 
191 5, on the Rotterdam. 

Dr. Herbert Kienzle, a clock-maker, of 309 
West 86th Street, had written to his father in 
Germany bitterly assailing the United States for 
shipping munitions, and enclosed in his letters 
information of certain American firms, such as 
Browne & Sharp, of Providence, and the Chal- 
mers Motor Car Company, of Detroit, who were 
reputed to be manufacturing them. These let- 
ters had been turned over to Jonnersen, who 
showed them to Fay as suggestions. Upon his 
arrival in New York, then, Fay called on Kienzle, 
who, though he was friendly enough, was reluc- 
tant to know of the details Fay had planned. Dr. 
Kienzle introduced Fay to von Papen, and later 



164 The German Secret Service in America 

to Max Breitung, from whom he purchased a 
quantity of potassium chlorate. 

The deserter found his brother-in-law, Walter 
Scholz, working as a gardener on an estate near 
Waterf ord, Connecticut, and brought him to New 
York on a salary of $25 a week. The two crossed 
the Hudson to Weehawken, N. J., and set to work 
to make bombs. Fay had a theory that a bomb 
might be attached to the rudder of a ship, and so 
set as to explode when the rudder, swinging to 
port, wound a ratchet inside the device which 
would release a hammer upon a percussion cap. 
Their plan was to have the parts manufactured 
at machine shops, assemble and fill them them- 
selves, and then steal up the waterfront in the 
small hours and attach the infernal machines to 
outward bound vessels. Fay even counted on 
disarming the police boats before setting out. 

It took the two some three months to get the 
parts made and properly adjusted. Meanwhile 
they employed their spare hours in cruising about 
the harbor in a motor-boat. A machinist in West 
42nd Street, New York, made the zinc tank which 
they used as a model, and the two conspirators 
shortly opened a garage in Weehawken where 
they could duplicate the bomb cases unmolested. 

There came a time when the devices were satis- 
factory, and Fay actually attached one to the 



Ship Bombs 165 

rudder of a ship to make sure that his adjust- 
ments were correct. The next move was to 
obtain explosives. Fay's prejudice against 
bombs placed in a ship's hold was that they rarely 
succeeded in sinking the craft ; seventy or eighty 
pounds of high explosive detonated at the stern 
of a vessel, however, would blow the rudder away 
and not only cripple the ship but would probably 
burst a hole in the stern, mangle the screw, and 
split the shaft. 

Captain Tunney, of the Bomb Squad, heard in 
October that two Germans were trying to buy pic- 
ric acid from a man who stopped at the Hotel 
Breslin, and who called himself Paul Seib and 
Karl F. Oppegaarde, as the occasion demanded. 
Tunney's men located the two Germans, and some 
days later learned that they had placed an order 
for fifty-two pounds of TNT, to be delivered at 
the Weehawken garage. The delivery was inter- 
cepted, a similar but harmless substance substi- 
tuted for the explosive, and two detective-truck- 
men took the package away on their truck to de- 
liver it to Fay and Scholz. While they were in 
New Jersey, Detectives Coy, Sterrett and Walsh 
found Fay at the Breslin, and followed him back 
to Weehawken. As he left the garage in the 
evening in his automobile, the automobile of Po- 
lice Commissioner Woods followed at a discreet 



166 The German Secret Service in America 

distance. Up the Palisades the two cars paraded, 
until in a grove near Grantwood, Fay and Scholz 
got out of their car and disappeared into the 
woods with a lantern. After a time they re- 
appeared, and returned to the garage, the police 
following. 

Next morning Chief Flynn was called into the 
hunt — the morning of Saturday, October 23 — and 
he assigned two special agents to the case. The 
police department directed two detectives to 
watch the woods at Grantwood where the con- 
spirators had gone the night before. Detectives 
Murphy and Fennelly, each equipped with line- 
men's climbers, arrived at the wood-road about 
noon, and spent the next eleven hours in the 
branches of a great oak tree which commanded 
the road. The perch was high and the night 
wind chilly, but the watchers were rewarded at 
last by the twin searchlights of an approaching 
car. Out of it stepped Fay and Scholz. The 
men in the branches saw by the light of the lan- 
tern which Scholz carried that Fay placed a pack- 
age underneath a distant tree, walked to a safe 
distance, exploded a percussion cap, watched the 
tree topple over and went away, apparently satis- 
fied with the power of his explosives. 

Meanwhile other detectives were watching the 
rooming house at Union Hill where Fay and 




Copyright, International film Servi 



Robert Fay, who made bombs with which he hoped to 
cripple the shipment of munitions to Europe 



Ship Bombs 167 

Scholz lived, and they saw the two come in about 
4 o'clock in the morning. Scholz had very little 
sleep, for there was a ship leaving next day for 
Liverpool. He left the house at 7 a. m. and went 
to the garage. Thereupon three detectives re- 
turned to the great oak tree at Grantwood. 
About noon Fay and his brother-in-law drove up, 
and unlocking the door of a rude hut in the wood, 
took out a bag, from which they poured a few 
grains of powder on the surface of a rock. Fay 
struck the rock with a hammer; a loud report 
followed, and the hammer broke in his hand. A 
moment later he heard a twig snap behind him. 
He turned, and saw a small army of detectives 
with drawn revolvers closing in on him. Fay 
protested and pleaded, and offered to bribe the 
detectives for his freedom, but he was locked 
up with Scholz. The two had stored in a ware- 
house several cases containing their completed 
bomb mechanisms; the police confiscated from 
their various caches five new bombs, 25 pounds of 
TNT, 25 sticks of dynamite, 150 pounds of chlo- 
rate of potash, two hundred bomb cylinders, 400 
percussion caps, one motor-boat, one chart of 
New York harbor showing all its fortifications 
and piers, one foreign automobile, two German 
automatic pistols and a long knife — a consider- 
able arsenal. 



168 The German Secret Service in America 

Their confessions caused the arrest of Paul 
Daeche, who had furnished them with explosives, 
Dr. Kienzle, Breitung, and Engelbert Bronk- 
horst. Fay received a sentence of eight years in 
the penitentiary, but after America went to war, 
Atlanta became too confining for his adventurous 
spirit, and he escaped the prison, and is believed 
to have crossed the Mexican border to safety. 
Scholz was sentenced to four years, and Daeche 
of three. Kienzle, Breitung and Bronkhorst were 
not tried, their apparent ignorance of Fay's de- 
signs outweighing in the jury's mind their obvi- 
ous German sympathies. Kienzle, upon the dec- 
laration of war of April 6, 1917, became an en- 
emy alien, and was interned. 

So Lieutenant Fay never qualified in active 
service as a destroying agent. Yet he was profli- 
gate in his intentions. He offered two men 
$500,000 if they could intrigue among the ship- 
pers in order that a ship laden with copper for 
England might wander from the path of convoy 
into German hands, and he even entertained the 
fantastic hope, with his chart and his motor-boat 
and his bombs, of stealing out of the harbor to the 
cordon of British cruisers who hung outside the 
three-mile limit and attaching his bombs to their 
rudders, that the German merchantmen might 
escape into the open sea. 



Ship Bombs 169 

On October 26 the Rio Lages caught fire at sea ; 
fire broke out in the hold of the Euterpe on No- 
vember 3 ; three days later there was fire aboard 
the Rochambeau at sea ; the next day an explosion 
occurred aboard the Ancona. And so the list 
runs on : 

Dec. 4 — Tynningham, two fires on ship. 
Dec. 24 — Alston, dynamite found in cargo. 
Dec. 26 — Inchmoor, fire in hold. 

1916 
Jan. 19 — Sygna, fire at sea. 
Jan. 19 — Ryndam, bomb explosion at sea. 
Jan. 22 — Rosebank, two bombs in cargo. 
Feb. 16 — Dalton, fire at sea. 
Feb. 21 — Tennyson, bomb explosion at sea. 
Feb. 26 — Livingston Court, fire in Gravesend Bay. 

April saw the round-up of the group who had 
been working under the Hamburg- American cap- 
tains, and although numerous fires occurred dur- 
ing May, 191 6, in almost every case they were 
traced to natural accidents. The number 
mounted more slowly as the year advanced. 
With the entrance of America into the war, and 
the tightening of the police cordon along the 
waterfront, the chance of planting bombs was 
still further reduced, but waterfront fires kept re- 
curring, and until the day of ultimate judgment in 
Berlin, when each of Germany's arsonists in 



170 The German Secret Service in America 

America comes to claim his reward, none will 
know the total of loss at their hands. It was 
enormous in the damage it inflicted upon cargo, 
but it is improbable that it had any perceptible 
effect upon the whole export of shells for Flan- 
ders and France. 



CHAPTER XII 

LABOR 

David Lamar — Labor's National Peace Council — The 
embargo conference — The attempted longshoremen's 
strike — Dr. Dumba's recall. 

Labor produced munitions. The hands of 
labor could be frightened away from work by- 
explosions, their handiwork could be bombed on 
the railways, the wharves, the lighters, and the 
ships, but a surer method than either of those 
was the perversion of the hearts of labor. So 
thought Count von Bernstorff and Dr. Albert, 
who dealt in men. So thought Berlin — the Gen- 
eral Staff sent this message to America : 

"January 26 — For Military Attache. You can obtain 
particulars as to persons suitable for carrying on sabot- 
age in the United States and Canada from the following 
persons: (1) Joseph McGarrity, Philadelphia; (2) 
John P. Keating, Michigan Avenue, Chicago; (3) Jere- 
miah O'Leary, 16 Park Row, New York. 

"One and two are absolutely reliable and discreet. 
Three is reliable, but not always discreet. These persons 
were indicated by Sir Roger Casement. In the United 

171 



172 The German Secret Service in America 

States sabotage can be carried out on every kind of 
factory for supplying munitions of war." 

(Signed) "Representative of General Staff." 1 

So too thought von Rintelen, who hired men — 
usually the wrong ones. 

Full of his project, he cast about for an inter- 
mediary. No sly chemist or muscular wharf-rat 
would do for this delicate task of anesthetizing 
men with the gas of German propaganda while it 
tied their hands and amputated their centres of 
right and wrong; the candidate must be a man of 
affairs, intimate with the chiefs of labor, skillful 
in execution, and the abler the better. Von Rin- 
telen would pay handsomely for the right man. 
Whereupon David Lamar, the "Wolf of Wall 
Street," appeared on the scene and applied for 
the job — an entrance auspicious for the United 
States, for the newcomer's philosophy (if one 
could judge from his previous career) was "Me 
First." 

In an attempt to defraud J. P. Morgan & Co., 
and the United States Steel Corporation Lamar 
had once impersonated Representative A. Mit- 
chell Palmer in certain telephone interviews. 
(Palmer became custodian of alien property after 

1 McGarrity, Keating, and O'Leary, upon the publication of 
this despatch, uttered vigorous denials of any connection with 
or knowledge of the despatch or the affairs mentioned. 



Labor 178 

the United States entered the war. ) He was con- 
victed and sentenced to two years' imprisonment 
in Atlanta Penitentiary. He appealed the case, 
and while he was out on bail pending the appeal, 
he fell in with Rintelen. 

In April, 191 5, a New Yorker who dealt in pub- 
licity was introduced to Rintelen, or "Hansen," 
by Dr. Schimmel. Rintelen offered the publicity 
man $25,000 to conduct a campaign of propa- 
ganda for more friendly relations with Germany, 
to offset the commercial power Great Britain bade 
fair to have at the end of the war, and assured 
him that he would go to any extreme to prevent 
shipments of munitions to the Allies. The war, 
he said, would be decided not in Europe but in 
America. There must be strikes in the munitions 
factories. 

When the publicity man heard also that Rin- 
telen was trying to stir up trouble with Mexico, 
he wrote on May 13 to Joseph Tumulty, Presi- 
dent Wilson's secretary, informing him of the 
German's intentions. He was referred to the 
Department of Justice, and at their dictation con- 
tinued in contact with Rintelen. Shortly there- 
after David Lamar and his friend Henry Martin 
took a trip to Minneapolis, where they met Con- 
gressman Frank Buchanan and Ex-Congressman 
Robert Fowler, both of Illinois. Out of that con- 



174 The German Secret Service in America 

f erence grew a plan for forming a labor organiza- 
tion the object of which was ostensibly peace, and 
actually an embargo upon the shipment of muni- 
tions abroad, but whether Buchanan and Fowler 
knew of von Rintelen's connection with the 
scheme remains to be proved. It can be readily 
seen that such a labor organization, if it had ac- 
tually represented organized labor, could have 
forced such a stoppage, either by its collective 
potential voting power and influence, or by fos- 
tering a nation-wide strike of munitions workers. 

The nucleus formed in Chicago, about one 
William F. Kramer. "Buchanan and Fowler 
came to me in June here in Chicago," said 
Kramer, "and told me about their plan to form a 
council. We opened headquarters, and we en- 
gaged two organizers, James Short and J. J. Cun- 
diff, who got $50 a week apiece, a secretary, L. P. 
Straube, who got $50 a week, and a stenographer. 
I was a vice-president, but I didn't get anything. 
We were known then as Labor's Peace Council of 
Chicago, and we were supposed to be in it because 
of our convictions against the shipment of muni- 
tions. And I'll say that organized labor was 
made the goat." 

Buchanan had no idea of restricting the coun- 
cil to one city. He called upon Samuel Gompers, 
head of the American Federation of Labor, at 



Labor 175 

Atlantic City on June 9 and tried to induce him 
to back a movement in Washington for an em- 
bargo. Gompers refused flatly and completely 
to have anything to do with the plan, especially 
when Buchanan made known his associates. 
Those associates were busy meanwhile lobbying 
in Congress, representing themselves as friends 
of organized labor, and pressing the embargo 
question. About a week later Congressman Bu- 
chanan inflated the Chicago organization into 
Labor's National Peace Council, with headquar- 
ters at Washington, to recommend the convoca- 
tion of a special session of Congress at once to 
"promote universal peace," which meant simply 
"to promote the introduction and enactment of an 
embargo." Its members met frequently, and an- 
noyed the President and other important men, — 
even Andrew Carnegie, — with their importunings 
for attention, and got exactly what they wanted — 
wide publicity. 

About July 10 Andrew D. Meloy, whose office 
in New York Rintelen was sharing at the time, 
noticed that his German associate began to keep 
a clipping-file of news of the Council. Meloy 
learned of the project, and assured Rintelen that 
he was foolhardy to attempt, by bribery of 
labor officials, to divert common labor from earn- 
ing high wages. To which Rintelen replied 



176 The German Secret Service in America 

brusquely : "Thanks. You come into this busi- 
ness about 1 1 145 o'clock." 

Rintelen sent a telegram to Lamar in Chicago 
on July 1 6, the text of which follows: 

"E. Ruskay, Room 700 B, Sherman Hotel, Chicago. 

"Party who receives $12,500 monthly from competi- 
tors is now interfering with business in hand. Do you 
know of any way and means to check him ? Wire. 

"F. Brown." 

"Ruskay" was Lamar. Later in the day the 
German sent this message: 

"Twelve thousand five hundred now at capitol. Con- 
ference here today plans to guarantee outsiders and settle- 
ment possible within few days. New issue urgently 
needed. Notify B." 

The "party" mentioned in the first despatch 
was the code designation for Gompers, and he 
was indicated in the second message as "Twelve 
thousand five hundred." "B" was Buchanan, 
upon whose connection with labor Rintelen told 
Meloy the success of the plan rested. Lamar 
hurried to New York, arriving July 19, and met 
Rintelen in a limousine at the 100th Street en- 
trance to Central Park; on the ride which fol- 
lowed the "Wolf" told Rintelen that a strike then 
going on among the munitions workers at Bridge- 
port was "only a beginning of his efforts," and 



Labor 177 

that within thirty days the industry would be 
paralyzed throughout the country. Meloy ad- 
vanced the information that Gompers had just 
gone to Bridgeport to stop the strike, to which 
Lamar replied : 

"Buchanan will settle Gompers within twenty- 
four hours \" 

The clippings kept coming in as testimony to 
the vigorous work being done by the organiza- 
tion's press bureau : the Council attacked the Fed- 
eral Reserve Banks as "munitions trusts," it cited 
on July 8 nine ships lying in port- awaiting muni- 
tions cargoes, and attacked Dudley Field Malone, 
then Collector of the Port of New York, for per- 
mitting such ships to clear; it claimed to repre- 
sent a million labor votes, and four million and a 
half farmers ; it listened eagerly to an address by 
Hannis Taylor, a disciple of the late warm- 
hearted Secretary of State, Mr. Bryan, in which 
Taylor criticized President Wilson and was 
roundly cheered by the German-American ele- 
ment in the audience. Semi-occasionally during 
the midsummer heat Charles Oberwager, attor- 
ney for the Council (whose firm had received 
handsome fees from von Papen), rose to deny 
any German connection with the organization. 
The Council assailed Secretary Lansing as a man 
"whose radicalism was liable to plunge this nation 



178 The German Secret Service in America 

into war." The Council assailed, in fact, any 
project which furthered the interests of the 
Allies. Rintelen began to have his doubts of the 
effectiveness of Lamar's work. The bank ac- 
count in the Trans-Atlantic Trust Company had 
dwindled from $800,000 to $40,000, and Rintelen 
admitted that his transactions with Lamar cost 
him several hundred thousand dollars. Labor's 
National Peace Conference died quietly, Lamar 
flitted away to a country estate at Pittsfield, 
Mass., and Rintelen started across the Atlantic 
Ocean. 

August wore on. The Council was getting 
ready for a second gaseous session, when Milton 
Snelling, a representative of the Washington 
Central Labor Union, who had been elected a first 
vice-president of the Council, withdrew from its 
membership, because he "discovered persons par- 
ticipating in the meetings who have been hanging 
on the fringe of the labor movement for their own 
personal aggrandizement, men who have been 
discarded . . . others never having been mem- 
bers of any organization of labor," and because 
Jacob C. Taylor, the cigar-making delegate from 
East Orange, N. J., said, in answer to a query as 
to the Council's purpose : "We want to stop the 
export of munitions to the Allies. You see Ger- 
many can make all the munitions she wants." 



Labor 179 

Then — and it may be coincidence — about one 
week later the New York World began its publi- 
cation of certain of the papers found in the brief 
case which Dr. Heinrich Albert, of the German 
Embassy, allowed to escape him on a New York 
elevated train; on August 19 Buchanan resigned 
the Council, and Taylor was elected to succeed 
him. 

Indictments were returned against Rintelen, as 
well as against Lamar, Martin, Buchanan and 
their associates, on December 28, 19 15. Bu- 
chanan at once exploded with a retaliatory de- 
mand for the impeachment of United States Dis- 
trict Attorney Marshall, upon which Congress 
dared not take action. Marshall gracefully re- 
tired from the trial in May, 191 6, lest he preju- 
dice the Government's case, and Lamar, Martin 
and Rintelen were convicted of infraction of the 
Sherman Anti-Trust Law and sentenced to one 
year each in a New Jersey prison. Thus ended 
Labor's National Peace Council, thanks to David 
Lamar. 

The project for an embargo looked attractive 
to the Embassy, however — so attractive that 
while the Council was at the height of its activ- 
ity, Baron Kurt von Reiswitz wrote on July 22, 
1915, from Chicago to Dr. Albert: 

"Everything else concerning the proposed em- 



180 The German Secret Service in America 

bargo conference you will find in the enclosed 
copy of the report to the Ambassador. A change 
has, however, come up, as the mass meeting will 
have to be postponed on account of there being 
insufficient time for the necessary preparations. 
It will probably be held there in about two weeks. 

"Among others the following have agreed to 
cooperate: Senator Hitchcock, Congressman 
Buchanan, William Bayard Hale of New York 
and the well known pulpit orator, Dr. Aked (born 
an Englishman), from San Francisco. 

"Hitchcock seemed to be very strong for the 
plan. He told our representative at a conference 
in Omaha: 'If this matter is organized in the 
right way you will sweep the United States.' 

"For your confidential information I would 
further inform you that the leadership of the 
movement thus far lies in the hands of two gen- 
tlemen (one in Detroit and one in Chicago) who 
are firmly resolved to work toward the end that 
the German community, which, of course, will be 
with us without further urging, shall above all 
things remain in the background, and that the 
movement, to all outward appearances, shall have 
a purely American character. I have known both 
the gentlemen very well for a long time and know 
that personal interest does not count with them; 
the results will bring their own reward. 



Labor 181 

"For the purposes of the inner organization, to 
which we attribute particular importance, we 
have assured ourselves of the cooperation of the 
local Democratic boss, Roger C. Sullivan, as also 
Messrs. Sparman, Lewis and McDonald, the lat- 
ter of the Chicago American. Sullivan was for- 
merly leader of the Wilson campaign and is a 
deadly enemy of Wilson, as the latter did not 
keep his word to make him a Senator; therefore, 
principally, the sympathy of our cause." 

One is inclined to wonder where Rintelen's 
vast credits went, during his short visits in 191 5. 
Lamar took a goodly sum, as we have seen; the 
negotiations for the purchase of the Krag rifles 
cost him no small amount; his ship bomb activi- 
ties required a considerable payroll. But as fur- 
ther evidence of the high cost of causing trouble, 
we must consider briefly the profligate methods 
he employed in other attempts to inflame and 
seduce labor. 

A walkout by the longshoremen of the Atlantic 
coast would cripple the supply of munitions to 
Europe, and might be successful enough to cause 
a shell famine in France of which the Central 
Powers could readily take advantage. There 
were 23,000 dock-workers in American ports; 
they must be guaranteed a certain wage for five 
weeks of strike; the cost in wages alone would 



182 The German Secret Service in America 

therefore amount to about $1,635,000, besides 
service fees to intermediaries. He had the 
money, and the first step was taken in the other- 
wise placid city of Boston. 

On May 7, 191 5, the day the Lusitania sank, 
William P. Dempsey, the secretary-treasurer of 
the Atlantic Coast International Longshoremen's 
Union, met Dennis Driscoll, a Boston labor 
leader and former city office-holder, at the old 
Quincy House in Hanover Street. Driscoll said 
that Matthew Cummings, a wealthy Boston gro- 
cer, had outlined to him the plan for the strike, 
and said he was acting for parties who were will- 
ing to pay a million dollars. Dempsey main- 
tained his poise when the startling information 
was recited, but he was frightened, and at the 
conclusion of the interview he telegraphed at once 
to T. V. O'Connor, the president of the union, re- 
questing an interview. The two union men met 
in Albany and discussed the affair pro and con, 
arriving at the conclusion that they had best re- 
veal the plot to the Government. O'Connor ac- 
cordingly told of the negotiations to Secretary 
Wilson of the Department of Labor, and then in 
connivance with the Secret Service, went on deal- 
ing with the grocer, constantly pressing him for 
the identity of the principals who, he said, were 
prepared to supply all the necessary money. He 



Labor 183 

implicated George Sylvestor Viereck, the editor 
of a subsidized German propaganda-weekly called 
The Fatherland, and said that he had been in- 
troduced to him by Edmund von Mach. Neither 
of those men figured except as intermediaries, 
and Cummings suggested that Dr. Bernhard 
Dernburg, a loyal propagandist then in the 
United States, was the director of the enterprises. 
Owing to the high pitch of public feeling over the 
Lusitania, Cummings could not receive permis- 
sion from his superiors to go ahead with O'Con- 
nor, but he did his best to keep O'Connor inter- 
ested. The latter, fearing that German agents 
were at work on the Pacific coast, took a trip to 
the far West, and during his absence Cummings 
telegraphed him twice. There the affair ended, 
for O'Connor ignored the message, and on July 14 
returned to New York to find that a German at- 
tempt to force a walkout on the New York water- 
front had failed, and that Cummings had stopped 
playing with fire and had gone back to his gro- 
cery in Boston. 

When the Government turned the story over to 
a newspaper to publish on September 13, the time 
was not ripe to fix the responsibility for the at- 
tempt. Dr. Dernburg was a popular scapegoat 
at the time, and the implication of his authority 
in the attempt was allowed to stand. Rintelen 



184 The German Secret Service in America 

was in Donington Hall, a prison camp in Eng- 
land, and it was months thereafter before the 
United States and British Secret Services had 
fully compared notes on him. By that time there 
were other charges lying against him which prom- 
ised better cases than an abortive attempt to pro- 
mote a strike 'longshore. 

We have witnessed the cumulative influence of 
newspaper reports in surrounding Labor's Na- 
tional Peace Council with an almost genuine 
atmosphere of national interest; we have been 
able to picture the hostility which the publication 
of the longshoremen's strike story aroused in 
legitimately organized labor; and although as a 
typical instance of newspaper influence we should 
postpone the following incident, it is a temptation 
too great to resist. It is the story of The Story 
That Cost an Ambassador, and if any further 
plea for its introduction be needed, let it be that 
it is another subtle attempt upon labor in the 
summer of 1915. 

James F. J. Archibald, an American corre- 
spondent who had seen most of the wars of re- 
cent years, and who wanted to see more, set sail 
from New York on August 21, 19 15, for Amster- 
dam, with his wife, his campaign clothes, and a 
portfolio. At Falmouth, England, the usual 




Dr. Constantin Dumba, Austrian ambassador to the United 
States, recalled after the disclosures of the correspon- 
dence captured on the war correspondent, Archibald 



Labor 185 

search party came aboard, and inspected the 
papers in the portfolio. Archibald proved to be 
an unofficial despatch-bearer, upon whom his Ger- 
man and Austrian acquaintances in the United 
States placed great reliance — such men as Papen, 
BernstorfT, and Dr. Constantine Dumba sent re- 
ports to their governments in his care. 

On September 5 the New York World burst 
forth with the text of one of the letters — one 
from Dr. Dumba, the Austro-Hungarian ambas- 
sador at Washington, to his chief in the foreign 
office at Vienna, Baron Burian. It is worth re- 
producing here intact : 

"New York, August 20." 
"Your Excellency : 

"Yesterday evening Consul-General von Nuber re- 
ceived the enclosed aide memoire from the chief editor 
of the local influential paper Szabadsag, after a previous 
conversation with me in pursuance of his verbal propos- 
als to arrange for strikes at Bethlehem in Schwab's steel 
and munitions factory and also in the middle West. 

"Archibald, who is well known to your Excellency, 
leaves today at 12 o'clock on board the Rotterdam for 
Berlin and Vienna. I take this rare and safe opportunity 
of warmly recommending these proposals to your Ex- 
cellency's favorable consideration. It is my impression 
that we can disorganize and hold up for months, if not 
entirely prevent, the manufacture of munitions in Beth- 
lehem and the middle West, which, in the opinion of the 



186 The German Secret Service in America 

German, military attache, is of great importance and 
amply outweighs the comparatively small expenditure of 
money involved. 

"But even if strikes do not occur it is probable that we 
should extort under pressure more favorable conditions 
of labor for our poor downtrodden fellow countrymen in 
Bethlehem. These white slaves are now working twelve 
hours a day, seven days a week. All weak persons suc- 
cumb and become consumptive. So far as German work- 
men are found among the skilled hands means of leaving 
will be provided immediately for them. 

"Besides this, a private German registry office has been 
established which provides employment for persons who 
voluntarily have given up their places. It already is 
working well. We shall also join in and the widest sup- 
port is assured us. 

"I beg your Excellency to be so good as to inform me 
with reference to this letter by wireless. Reply whether 
you agree. I remain, with great haste and respect, 

"DUMBA." 

The aide memoire, written by the editor of a 
Hungarian weekly, proposed to create unrest by 
a campaign in foreign language newspapers cir- 
culated free to labor, muck-raking labor condi- 
tions in Bethlehem, Youngstown, Cleveland, 
Pittsburg, and Bridgeport, where there were 
great numbers of foreign workmen, Hungarians, 
Austrians, and Germans. This was to be sup- 
plemented by a "horror novel" similar to the 
bloody effort of Upton Sinclair to describe the 



Labor 187 

Chicago stockyards. Special agents of unrest, 
roll-turners, steel workers, soapbox orators, pic- 
nic organizers, were all to be insinuated into the 
plants to stir up the workmen. This editor had 
stirred them up a few weeks before at Bridge- 
port — the strike which Lamar claimed as his own 
accomplishment — and he presented to Baron 
Burian a really comprehensive plan for creating 
unrest through his well-subsidized foreign-lan- 
guage press. And in passing it on, Dr. Dumba 
stood sponsor for it. 

The British government saw in the discovery of 
the letter and the cool impudence of it, a rare 
chance for propaganda in America. So, as has 
been said, the World published the story, and at 
once the wrath of the truly American people jus- 
tified President Wilson in doing what he and Sec- 
retary Lansing had already determined to do — to 
send Dr. Dumba home. Perhaps Dumba's refer- 
ence to the "self-willed temperament of the Presi- 
dent" in another note found on Archibald had 
something to do with the haste with which the 
Ambassador's recall was demanded; it followed 
on the heels of the publication of the letter : 

"By reason of the admitted purpose and intent of Mr. 
Dumba to conspire to cripple legitimate industries of the 
United States and to interrupt their legitimate trade, and 
by reason of the flagrant violation of diplomatic propriety 



188 The German Secret Service in America 

in employing an American citizen protected by an Ameri- 
can passport as a secret bearer of official despatches 
through the lines of the enemy of Austria-Hungary, the 
President directs us to inform your Excellency that Mr. 
Dumba is no longer acceptable to the Government of the 
United States as the Ambassador of his Imperial Majesty 
at Washington." 

So went Dumba. 

After his departure Baron Zwiedinek, his 
charge d'affaires, and Consul von Nuber adver- 
tised widely in Hungarian newspapers calling on 
Austrians and Hungarians at work in munitions 
plants to leave. If they wrote the Embassy on 
the subject, the reply they received read: 

"It is demanded that patriotism, no less than fear of 
punishment, should cause every one to quit his work im- 
mediately." 

But neither threats, nor walking delegates, nor 
German spies could check the output of shells and 
guns. An attempt made by Dr. Albert to buy, 
for $50,000, a strike in Detroit motor factories 
failed. The factories were making money as 
they had never made money before, and labor 
was buying luxuries. To the American muni- 
tions-worker a comfortable supply of money 
meant much more than the shrill bleat of the Cen- 
tral Powers. And what was more, he was not 
entirely satisfied that the right was all on Ger- 



Labor 189 

many's side. (Our space does not permit, nor 
is definite information at present available, to dis- 
cuss the anarchist, socialist, and I. W. W. ele- 
ments of labor, and their relations to Germany. 
These three factors, especially the last named, ef- 
fected in the years 1914-1918 a sufficient amount 
of industrial unrest to qualify them as allies, if 
not actual servants, of the Kaiser. Whether 
they were employed by Germany will be brought 
out in a trial which began in Chicago in April, 
1918.) 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA 

The mistress of the seas — Plotting in New York — The 
Lusitania s escape in February, 19 15 — The advertised 
warning — The plot — May 7, 191 5 — Diplomatic corre- 
spondence — Gustave Stahl — The results. 

In the eyes of the German Admiralty the 
Lusitania was the symbol of British supremacy on 
the seas. There were larger ships flying the 
Prussian flag, but one of them lay in her German 
harbor, the other at her Little-German pier in 
Hoboken, while the Lusitania swept gracefully 
over the Western Ocean as she regally saw fit, 
leaving only a thin trail of smoke for the sluggish 
undersea enemy to follow. Time and again dur- 
ing the early months of war the plotters in Berlin 
had attempted her destruction, and every time 
she had slipped away — until the last, when the 
plot was developed on American soil. 

Her destruction would carry home to Germany 
news of heartening influence out of all proportion 
to the mere sinking of a large single tonnage. 
The German visible navy had, with the exception 
of scattering excursions into the North Sea, and 

190 




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The Sinking of the Lusitania 191 

the swiftly quenched efforts of the South Atlantic 
fleet, been of negligible — and irksome — conse- 
quence. To sink the mistress of the British mer- 
chant fleet would be to inform all the world that 
Britain was incapable of protecting her cargo and 
passenger vessels, to puncture the comfortable 
British boast of the moment that business was 
being performed "as usual," and to gratify the 
blood-letting instincts of the Junkers. So von 
Tirpitz, with his colleagues, undertook to sink the 
Lusitania, and to warn neutrals to travel in their 
own ships or stay ashore. 

Early in December, 1914, the German agents 
who met nightly at the Deutscher Verein in Cen- 
tral Park South speculated on ways and means of 
bringing down this attractive quarry. Commun- 
ication between Berlin and New York at that 
time was as facile as a telephone conversation 
from the Battery to Harlem. There were new 
uo-kilowatt transmitters in the German-owned 
Sayville wireless station, imported through Hol- 
land and installed under the expert supervision of 
Captain Boy-Ed, and memoranda issued in Berlin 
to the naval attache were frequently the subject of 
guarded conversation in the German Club within 
a few hours after they had left the Wilhelm- 
strasse. Occasionally the conspirators found it 
more tactful to drive through the Park in a 



192 The German Secret Service in America 

limousine during the evening, to discuss the pro- 
ject. Spies had made several trips to Liverpool 
and back again aboard the ship, under false pass- 
ports, and Paul Koenig's waterfront henchmen 
supplied all necessary information of the guard 
maintained at the piers. All this was passed up 
to the clearing-house of executives, and their 
plans began to take shape. 

Boy-Ed possessed a copy of the secret British 
Admiralty code, which explained his frequent 
trips to Sayville. He knew — and Tirpitz's staff 
therefore knew — the position of any British ves- 
sel at sea which had occasion to utter any mes- 
sage into the air. But before he conceived a use 
for this code other than as a source of informa- 
tion, he decided to try out a code of his own. 

He arranged with Berlin a word-system whose 
theory was popular with Germany throughout the 
earlier years of her secret war communication: 
under the guise of apparently harmless expres- 
sions of friendship, or grief, or simple business, 
were transmitted quite definite and specific secret 
meanings. A message addressed by wireless 
from the Lusitania to a friend in England which 
read for example "Eager to see you. Much love" 
would scarcely arouse suspicion, especially as 
there was no word in it which might suggest mili- 
tary information. Yet in February, 191 5, a mes- 



The Sinking of the Lusitania 193 

sage of that type was despatched from the east- 
ward-bound Lusitania to a British station; it was 
intercepted and interpreted by a German sub- 
marine commander in the "zone" nearby, who 
presently popped up in the ship's wake and fired 
a torpedo. His information was better than his 
aim. The Lusitania dodged the steel shark, and 
fled to safety, her wireless informing the British 
naval world meanwhile of the presence of the 
U-boat. 

The plotters had to reckon with her unequalled 
speed. The Lusitania and her sister ship, the 
Mauretania, had each rather prided herself in the 
past on reducing the other's fresh, bright passage- 
record from Queenstown to New York — a record 
of four days and a few hours ! The submarine of 
19 1 5 knew no such speed, and it was necessary, if 
the liner was to be torpedoed, to select out of the 
vastness of the ocean one little radius in which the 
submarine might lie in wait for a pot-shot. But 
just how ? 

Spies had reported that it was customary as the 
Lusitania neared the Irish coast on her homeward 
voyage for her captain to query the British Ad- 
miralty for instructions as to where her convoy 
might be expected. They reported that under 
certain conditions German agents might be placed 
on board. And they reported that the wireless 



194 The German Secret Service in America 

operator was susceptible to bribery. Those three 
facts formed the nucleus of the final plan. 

Audacious as they were in their use of Ameri- 
can soil as the base for their plans, the German 
Embassy had certain obligations to the United 
States Government, which they felt must be ob- 
served. The unspeakable falsifying which is 
sometimes called expediency, sometimes diplo- 
macy, required that official America must know 
nothing of the intentions of which the Embassy 
itself was fully conversant and approving. Fur- 
ther, a palliative must be supplied to the American 
people in advance. Consequently Count von 
BernstorfT, under orders from Berlin, inserted in 
the New York Times of April 23, 1915, the fol- 
lowing advertisement : 

NOTICE 

Travelers intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage 
are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany 
and her Allies and Great Britain and her Allies ; that the 
zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British 
Isles ; that in accordance with formal notice given by the 
German Imperial Government, vessels flying the flag of 
Great Britain or any of her Allies are liable to destruc- 
tion in these waters and that travelers sailing in the war 
zone on ships of Great Britain or her Allies do so at their 

own risk. Imperial German Embassy. 

Washington, D. C, April 22d, 1915. 



OCEAN TRAVEL 



NOTICE! 

TRAVELLERS intending to 
embark on the Atlantic voyage 
jare reminded that a state of 
war exists between Germany 
and her allies and Great Britain 
and her allies; that the zone of] 
| war includes the waters adja- 
cent to the British Isles; that, 
I in accordance with formal no 
'tice given by the Imperial Ger 
man Government, vessels fly 
ingthe flag of Great Britain, or 
iofanyof her allies,are liable to 
destruction in those waters and 
that travellers sailing in the 
war zone on ships of Great 
Britain or her allies do so at 
their own risk. 

IMPERIAL GERMAN EMBASSY 

WASHINGTON, D. C„ APRIL 22. 1915 



The newspaper advertisement inserted among 
"ocean travel" advertising by the Im- 
perial German Embassy prior to 
the Lusitania s departure on 
what proved to be her 
last voyage 



The Sinking of the Lusitania 195 

Germans in New York who knew of the plot 
dropped hints to their friends ; anonymous warn- 
ings were received by several passengers who had 
booked their accommodations; Alfred Gwynne 
Vanderbilt received such a message, signed 
"Morte." But such whispers were common, the 
Lusitania had outrun the submarines before and 
could presumably do it again; further, most 
Americans at that moment had some confidence 
left in civilization. 

The plot was substantially this : when Captain 
Turner, on the last day of the voyage, should send 
his wireless query to the Admiralty, inquiring for 
his convoy of destroyers, a wireless reply in the 
British code directing his course must be sent to 
him from Sayville. His query would be heard 
and answered by the Admiralty, of course, but the 
genuine reply must not reach him. 

Berlin assigned two submarines to a point ten 
miles south by west of the Old Head of Kinsale, 
near the entrance to St. George's Channel. She 
selected an experienced commander for the espe- 
cial duty, and with him went a secret agent to 
shadow him as he opened his sealed instructions, 
and shoot him if he balked. And about the time 
when the U-boats slipped out of the Kiel Canal, 
and threaded their way through the mine-fields 
into the North Sea, submerging as they picked up 



196 The German Secret Service in America 

the smoke of British ships on the western horizon, 
the Lusitania warped out of her pier in the Hud- 
son River and set her prow for Sandy Hook, the 
Grand Banks, and Ireland. 

She carried 1,254 passengers and a crew of 
eight hundred, a total of more than 2,000 souls, 
of whom 1,214 were sailing to their death. Ger- 
many had selected their graves ; von Rintelen had 
two friends aboard who were detailed to flash 
lights from the portholes in case the ship made the 
submarine rendezvous at night. The Lusitania 
carried bombs which Dr. Karl Schimmel placed on 
board; she carried bombs which wretched little 
Klein placed on board ; she carried, too, the crea- 
ture who was to betray her. Her company was 
gay enough, and interesting; besides Mr. Vander- 
bilt her passenger list included Charles Frohman, 
the most important of theatrical managers; El- 
bert Hubbard, a quaint and lovable writer-arti- 
san; Charles Klein, a playwright; Justus Miles 
Forman, a novelist ; and numerous others of more 
or less celebrity, among them an actress who lived 
to reenact her part in the tragedy for the benefit 
of herself and a motion picture company. Ruth- 
less as it was, the Lusitania also carried Lindon 
W. Bates, Jr., a }^outh whose family had be- 
friended von Rintelen. And there were the 
women and children. 



The Sinking of the Lusitania 197 

Meanwhile, Sayville was in readiness, a trained 
wireless operator prepared at any moment to hear 
Captain Turner's inquiry, and to flash a false re- 
ply with a perfect British Admiralty touch. On 
May 5 Captain Boy-Ed received word from Ber- 
lin that he had been awarded the Iron Cross. On 
May 7 the Lusitania spoke: Captain Turner's 
request for instructions. Presently the reply 
came, and was hurried to his cabin. From his 
code book he deciphered directions to "proceed 
to a point ten miles south of Old Head of Kinsale 
and thence run into St. George's Channel, ar- 
riving at the Liverpool bar at midnight." He 
carefully calculated the distance and his running 
time on the assumption that he was protected on 
every side by the British fleet, and set his course 
for the Old Head of Kinsale. 

The British Admiralty also received Captain 
Turner's inquiry, just as the Sayville operator had 
snatched it from the air, and despatched an an- 
swer : orders that the Lusitania proceed to a point 
some yo or 8o miles south of the Old Head of 
Kinsale, there to meet her convoy. Captain 
Turner never received that message. The 
British Government knows why the message was 
not delivered, though the fact has not, at this date, 
been made public. 

The Lusitania headed northeast all morning. 



198 The German Secret Service in America 

At i :20 o'clock she ran the gauntlet of two sub- 
marines; a torpedo was released, and found its 
target. The ghastly details of what followed 
have been told so fully, so vividly, and so appeal- 
ingly that they need not be repeated here. They 
made themselves heard around a world that was 
already vibrant with uproar. The first sodden 
tremor of the ship told Captain Turner that he 
had been betrayed. He described later at the Cor- 
oner's inquest how he had received orders sup- 
posedly from the Admiralty, and had set out to 
obey them. He produced the copy of those or- 
ders, but of the genuine message from the Ad- 
miralty he knew nothing. Asked if he had made 
special application for a convoy, he said: "No, 
I left that to them. It is their business, not mine. 
I simply had to carry out my orders to go, and I 
would do it again." 

America was in a turmoil. Germany nad 
presumed too far; she — it is almost incongruous 
to call Germany "she" — had believed that her 
warning declaration that the waters about the 
British isles were a war zone would be respected, 
or if not respected, would serve as an excuse, and 
that the torpedoing would be accepted calmly by 
America. She was not prepared for Colonel 
Roosevelt's burning denunciation of this act of 
common piracy, nor for the angry editorial re- 



The Sifiking of the Lusitania 199 

monstrance of a people outraged at the loss of one 
hundred and fourteen American lives. But Ger- 
many recovered her presumptuous poise swiftly, 
and while ugly medals were being struck off com- 
memorating the German triumph over the ship, 
and while destroyers were still searching British 
waters for the bodies of the dead, she sent a note 
of commiseration and sympathy to Washington. 
Three days later — on May 13 — the United States 
conveyed to Berlin a strong protest against the 
submarine policy which had culminated in the 
sinking of the Lusitania. Three days before 
Germany replied on May 28, a submarine attacked 
an American steamer, the Nebraska, and the Im- 
perial government followed up its first reply with 
a supplementary note justifying its previous at- 
tacks upon the American vessels Gufflight and 
Cashing. Germany's fat was in the fire. 

A German editor in the United States had the 
effrontery to announce that American ships would 
be sunk as readily as the Lusitania. Secretary 
Bryan, of the Department of State, at that time 
a confirmed pacifist, resigned his post on June 
8, thus drawing the sting of a second and sharper 
protest which went forward to Germany the next 
day. To this the Foreign Office replied on July 8 
that American ships would be safe in the sub- 
marine zone under certain conditions, and the 



200 The German Secret Service in America 

President on July 21 rejected this diplomatic sop 
as "very unsatisfactory." Count von BernstorfT 
finally announced, on September 1, that German 
submarines would sink no more liners without 
warning, and his government ratified his promise 
a fortnight later. The promise was at best a 
quibble, and it in no way restricted undersea 
depredations upon commerce and human life. 
After the. Lusitania affair followed the Leelanaw, 
the Arabic, and the Hesperian and on February 
16, 191 6, Germany acknowledged her liability for 
the Lusitania 's destruction — the day after Secre- 
tary Lansing declared the right of commercial 
vessels to arm themselves in self-defense, and five 
days before the Crown Prince began the ten- 
months' battle of Verdun. 

The published correspondence of the State De- 
partment gives in detail the negotiations regard- 
ing maritime relations, a record of Imperial hy- 
pocrisy which indicates clearly the desire and in- 
tention of the Germans to retain their submarine 
warfare at any cost. There is not space here to 
brief the papers, nor any great need, for it was 
the Lusitania which dictated the tone and outcome 
of the correspondence, and which brought the 
United States rudely face to face with the cruel 
facts of war. 

In spite of these facts, Germany employed her 



The Sinking of the Lusitania 201 

agents in desperate, devious and futile attempts to 
gloss over the crime. Relatives of those who had 
drowned were persuaded by agents (one of them 
was "a lawyer named Fowler, now under Federal 
indictment on another count" ) to sue the Cunard 
Line for damages for having mounted guns on the 
liner, thus making her liable to attack. Paul 
Koenig paid a German, Gustave Stahl, of Ho- 
boken, to swear to an affidavit that he had seen 
guns on the ship ; this affidavit was forwarded by 
Captain Boy-Ed on June I, to Washington, and 
had a wide temporary effect upon public senti- 
ment until Stahl was convicted of perjury and 
sentenced to 18 months in Atlanta. It was 
Koenig who hid Stahl where neither the police 
nor the press could find him after he made his 
statement, and it was Koenig who, at the com- 
mand of the Federal authorities, produced him. 
It was Rintelen who dined on the night of the 
tragedy at the home of one of the victims ; it was 
Rintelen who received the news with a mild ex- 
pression of regret because "he had two good men 
aboard." 

Tactically Germany had attained her objec- 
tives ; her submarines had obeyed orders and sunk 
a liner. Strategically Germany had made a gross 
miscalculation ; recruiting in England took a pro- 
nounced rise, the Admiralty was shocked into re- 



202 The German Secret Service in America 

doubled vigilance, the United States instead of 
swallowing the affront complicated the question 
of the freedom of the seas beyond all untangling 
except by force of arms, and beside the word 
"Belgium" on the calendar of crime the world 
wrote the word "Lusitania," as equally typical 
of the warfare of the Hun. 



CHAPTER XIV 

COMMERCIAL VENTURES 

German law in America — Waetzoldt's reports — The 
British blockade — A report from Washington — Stopping 
the chlorine supply — Speculation in wool — Dyestuffs and 
the Deutschland — Purchasing phenol — The Bridgeport 
Projectile Company — The lost portfolio — The recall of 
the attaches — A summary of Dr. Albert's efforts. 

In addition to the exercise of its diplomatic 
functions, now more important than they had 
ever been before, the German Embassy had as- 
sumed the burden of large commercial enter- 
prises. Their execution was entrusted to Dr. Al- 
bert, the privy councillor and fiscal agent for the 
Empire. There was apparently no limit, either 
financial or territorial, to the scope of his efforts, 
and the fact that he was able to administrate such 
a volume of work is no small tribute to his zeal. 
But that very zeal outran his regard for Ameri- 
can law, so in one of his earlier ventures he set 
out to substitute the law of the Empire for that 
of the nation to which he was accredited. 

Dr. Albert was informed on March 10, 191 5, by 

203 



204 The German Secret Service in America 

a German lawyer, S. Walter Kaufmann of 60 
Wall Street, that his clients, the Orenstein- 
Arthur Keppel Company, had an order for 9,000 
tons of steel rails to be shipped to Russia, despite 
instructions from the company's home office in 
Berlin that "no orders should be accepted for ship- 
ment to any country at war with Germany, be- 
cause of Paragraph 89 of the Gesetz Buch." The 
Gesetz Buch is the German Penal Code. (One 
of Kauf mann's law partners was Norvin R. Lind- 
heim, legal adviser to Germany's agents in the 
United States.) The manufacturers begged the 
permission of the Embassy to accept the order and 
pass the actual manufacture on to the United 
States Steel Company, in order to evade the let- 
ter of Paragraph 89, and in order "to delay the 
order, if that would in any way be desirable." 
The matter was neglected in the Embassy, and on 
July 13 the Orenstein-Arthur Keppel Company 
wrote from Keppel, Pa., to the German consul, 
Philadelphia, Dr. George Stobbe, again asking 
permission to accept the order. The consul re- 
plied, denying permission, on the ground that the 
shipment would facilitate the Russian transport 
of troops, and that such action would be within 
the meaning of Paragraph 89 of the Gesetz Buch. 
"That you are in position to delay the delivery of 
the order, to the prejudice of the hostile country 



Commercial Ventures 205 

ordering, in no way makes you less punishable," 
he continued. He forwarded a copy of his ruling 
to the Ambassador for approval, and it in turn 
was forwarded to Dr. Albert. The order was not 
taken; the fear of punishment by Germany was 
greater than the protection afforded by American 
Law. 

The foregoing episode reveals the nature of Dr. 
Albert's chief problem — the financial blocking of 
supplies for the Allies. Let Boy-Ed destroy the 
ships, von Papen dynamite the factories and rail- 
ways, Rintelen run his mad course of indiscrim- 
inate violence — the smooth financial agent would 
undertake only those great business ventures in 
which his shrewdness and experience could have 
play. He was receiving reports constantly on the 
economic status, and the following extract from a 
report from G. D. Waetzoldt, a trade investigator 
in the Consulate in New York, will illustrate the 
German frame of mind about midsummer of 

1915: 

"The large war orders, as the professional 

journals also print, have become the great means 
of saving American business institutions from 
idleness and financial ruin. 

" The fact that institutions of the size and in- 
ternational influence of those mentioned could not 
find sufficient regular business to keep them to 



206 The German Secret Service in America 

some extent occupied, half at least, throws a harsh 
light upon the sad condition in which American 
business would have found itself had it not been 
for the war orders. The ground which induced 
these large interests to accept war orders rests 
entirely upon an economical basis and can be ex- 
plained by the above-mentioned conditions which 
were produced by the lack of regular business. 
These difficulties, resulting from the dividing up 
of the contracts, are held to have been augmented, 
as stated in business circles, by the fact that cer- 
tain agents working in the German interest suc- 
ceeded in further delaying and disturbing Ameri- 
can deliveries. . . . 

"So many contracts for the production of picric 
acid have been placed that they can only be filled 
to a very small part." 

Dr. Albert also received a report from another 
trade expert, who had had a long conference with 
ex-Senator John C. Spooner of Wisconsin as to 
whether or not there could be prosecutions under 
the Sherman Anti-Trust Law against British rep- 
resentatives because of the restrictions placed 
by the British Government upon dealings by 
Americans in certain copper, cotton and rubber. 

Naturally one of the most vital problems that 
stirred Dr. Albert was the British Orders in 
Council blockading Germany, from which re- 



Commercial Ventures 207 

suited the seizure of meat and food supplies and 
cotton by British war vessels. He was always 
on the alert for information of the attitude of the 
Administration and the people of the United 
States toward the blockade. In another report 
dated June 3, 191 5, Waetzoldt said: 

"There can be no doubt that the British Gov- 
ernment will bring into play all power and pres- 
sure possible in order to complete the total block- 
ade of Germany from her foreign markets, and 
that the Government of the United States will not 
make a strenuous effort to maintain its trade with 
Germany. . . . 

"It has been positively demonstrated during 
this time that the falling off of imports caused by 
the war in Europe will in the future be principally 
covered by American industry. . . . 

"The complete stopping importation of German 
products will, in truth, to a limited extent, espe- 
cially in the first part of the blockade, help the 
sale of English or French products, but the dam- 
age which will be done to us in this way will not be 
great. . . . 

"The Lusitania case did, in fact, give the Eng- 
lish efforts in this direction a new and powerful 
impetus, and at first the vehemence with which 
the Anti-German movement began anew awak- 
ened serious misgivings, but this case also will 



208 The German Secret Service in America 

have a lasting effect, which, unless fresh compli- 
cations arise, we may be able to turn to the advan- 
tage of the sales of German goods. . . . 

"The war will certainly have this effect, that 
the American business world will devote all its 
energy toward making itself independent of the 
importation of foreign products as far as pos- 
sible. . . . 

"If the decision is again brought home to Ger- 
man industry it should not be forgotten what po- 
sition the United States took with reference to 
Germany in this war. Above all, it should not 
be forgotten that the 'ultimate ratio' of the United 
States is not the war with arms, but a complete 
prohibition of trade with Germany, and in fact, 
through legislation. That was brought out very 
clearly and sharply in connection with the still 
pending negotiations regarding the Lusitania 
case." 

That Dr. Albert used secret and perhaps de- 
vious means to secure his information is revealed 
by an unsigned confidential report which he re- 
ceived under most mysterious circumstances con- 
cerning an interview by a man referred to as "M. 
P." with President Wilson and Secretary Lan- 
sing. The person who wrote of "the conversa- 
tion" on July 23, 191 5, with "Legal Agent" Levy 



Commercial Ventures 209 

and Mr. John Simon does not give his name. A 
striking part of this conversation follows : 

"Levy advises regarding a conference with 
M. P. Thereafter M. P. saw Lansing as well as 
Wilson. Lie informed both of them that an 
American syndicate had approached him which 
had strong German relations. This syndicate 
wishes to buy up cotton for Germany in great 
style, thereby to relieve the cotton situation, and at 
the same time to provide Germany with cotton." 
(Dr. Albert attempted, with a suitable campaign 
of press and political propaganda, to inflame the 
Southern planters over the British embargo on 
cotton.) "The relations of the American syndi- 
cate with Germany are very strong, so that they 
might even possibly be able to influence the posi- 
tion of Germany in the general political question. 
M. P. therefore asked for a candid, confidential 
statement in order to make clear not only his own 
position, but also necessarily the political oppor- 
tunity. The result of the conversation was as 
follows : 

"i. The note of protest to England will go in 
any event whether Germany answers satisfactor- 
ily or not. 

"2. Should it be possible to settle satisfactorily 
the Lusitania case, the President will bind him- 



210 The German Secret Service in America 

self to carry the protest against England through 
to the uttermost. 

"3. The continuance of the difference with Ger- 
many over the Lusitania case is 'embarrassing' 
for the President in carrying out the protest 
against England. . . . 

"4. A contemplated English proposal to buy 
cotton in great style and invest the proceeds in 
America would not satisfy the President as an 
answer to the protest. . . . 

"5. The President, in order to ascertain from 
Mr. M. P. how strong the German influence of 
this syndicate is, would like to have the trend of 
the German note before the note is officially sent, 
and declares himself ready, before the answer is 
drafted, to discuss it with M. P., and eventually to 
so influence it that there will be an agreement for 
its reception, and also to be ready to influence the 
press through a wink. 

"6. As far as the note itself is concerned, which 
he awaits, so he awaits another expression of re- 
gret, which was not followed in the last note. 
Regret together with the statement that nobody 
had expected that human lives would be lost and 
that the ship would sink so quickly. 

"7. The President is said to have openly de- 
clared that he could hardly hope for a positive 



Commercial Ventures 211 

statement tint the submarine warfare would be 
discontinued." 

Dr. Albert conferred with Captains Boy-Ed 
and von Papen on all military and naval matters 
having a commercial phase. Captain von Papen, 
on July 7, 191 5, submitted to Dr. Albert a memo- 
randum for his consideration and further recom- 
mendation, headed "Steps Taken to Prevent the 
Exportation of Liquid Chlorine." Pie told of the 
efforts made by England and France to buy that 
chemical in America, estimated the output here, 
and cited the manufacturers. He also enclosed a 
plan for checkmating the Allies and concluded 
with the following paragraph : 

"It will be impossible, however, for this to go 
on any length of time, as the shareholders wish 
the profits to be derived therefrom. Dr. Oren- 
stein therefore suggests that an agreement be con- 
summated with the Electro Bleaching Company, 
through the President, Kingsley, whereby the de- 
livery of liquid chlorine by this country to France 
and England will be stopped. A suggested plan 
is enclosed herewith. 

"From a military standpoint I deem it very de- 
sirable to consummate such an agreement, in or- 
der to stop thereby the further exportation of 
about fifty-two tons of liquid chlorine monthly, 



212 The German Secret Service in America 

especially in view of the fact that in France there 
is only one factory (Rouen) which can produce 
this stuff in small amounts, while it is only pro- 
duced in very small quantities, in England." 

During 1914 and 191 5 German speculation in 
wool was active. Early in the war von Berns- 
torff summoned a German-American wool mer- 
chant recommended by a business friend in Ber- 
lin and directed him to buy all the wool he could 
secure. He did so, using Deutsches Bank credits 
for the purchases made for Germany, and mak- 
ing his purchases of wool for Germany even in 
Cape Town and Australia. The German-Amer- 
ican, after following this practice for some 
months, decided that his financial allegiance be- 
longed to America, so he tried, through Hugo 
Schmidt, to induce the German interests in his 
firm to sell out to him. On August 9, 191 5, 
Schmidt wrote to Keswig, the Berlin principal: 

"Your friend here has inquired in London, and 
he offers no matter what price may be realizable 
in London at that time to take over the wool from 
you at the original price, in which case you would 
naturally pay all the expenses, which are esti- 
mated to be about 6 per cent. As you see, it is not 
so simple to deal with your friends." 

The German-American's offer meant a good 
profit to him, as the London price of wool at that 



Commercial Ventures 213 

time had advanced nearly 15 per cent. Yet he 
apparently fell into no ill favor with Berlin, for 
in June, 191 6, the German Foreign office wrote 
von Bernstorff: 

"Interested parties here have repeatedly made 
representations for preferential treatment of the 
firm of Forstmann & Huffman in Passaic, N. J., 
in connection with shipment of coal tar dyes to 
the United States of America. Since this pure 
German firm, as is well known on your side, un- 
dertook last year the wool supply for Germany, 
and therefore claim it has been especially badly 
treated by England, it is most respectfully recom- 
mended to Your Excellency, should there be no 
reason to the contrary, to arrange for the great- 
est possible consideration for this firm in the later 
distribution of the shipments to consumers which 
now are in prospect." 

Necessity, the mother of invention, had forced 
America's production of coal-tar derivatives and 
dyestuffs upward enormously during the first year 
of war. As the British blockade tightened, the 
German supply, which had long constituted the 
world supply, was cut off completely. The value 
of dyestuffs in America increased enormously 
from 1914 to 191 5. Germany witnessed this 
growth with apprehension, and realized gravely 
that export expansion would follow increased 



214 The German Secret Service in America 

and perfected production in America, which it 
promptly did. German chemical interests in- 
volved in a drug house familiar with the German 
market, have testified that their firm "paid three 
times the value" of a cargo of dyestuffs shipped 
from Bremen to Baltimore in 1916 in the huge 
undersea-boat Deutschland, "which paid for the 
ship and cargo." Her sister ship, the Bremen, 
which set forth for America, but never arrived, 
was also "built with money furnished by the dye- 
stuff manufacturers," according to Ambassador 
Gerard. 

The Deutschland herself was 300 feet long, 
with a cargo capacity of some 800 tons. She 
docked at the North German Lloyd piers in Balti- 
more, and after loading a cargo of rubber and 
nickel, took an opportune moment one foggy twi- 
light to cast off and slip out to sea. She not only 
returned safely to Germany but made another 
round trip to America, putting in the second time 
at New London. She was at sea about three 
weeks on each crossing of the Atlantic. 

Dr. Albert made plans for buying up carbolic 
acid to prevent it from reaching the Allies. Dr. 
Hugo Schweitzer, a German-American chemist 
of New York, paid down $100,000 cash on June 
3, 191 5, to the American Oil & Supply Company 
in New Jersey as part payment of $1,400,000 for 



Commercial Ventures 215 

1,212,000 pounds of carbolic acid, of which the 
American Oil & Supply Company had directed 
the purchase from Thomas A. Edison. Dr. 
Schweitzer said that he bought the liquid not to 
prevent it from falling into the hands of the Al- 
lies but to use in the manufacture of medical sup- 
plies. 

Not the least interesting of Dr. Albert's finan- 
cial experiences is that which conceived and bore 
the Bridgeport Projectile Company. In a con- 
ference early in 191 5 in the offices of G. Amsinck 
& Co., in New York, Count von Bernstorff came 
to the conclusion that one way to prevent the ship- 
ment of munitions to the enemy was to monopo- 
lize the industry, or at least to control it financially 
as far as possible. Dr. Albert made an unsuc- 
cessful attempt to buy the Union Metallic Car- 
tridge plant for $17,000,000. He chose as his 
lieutenants for his next task Hugo Schmidt, the 
New York representative of the Deutsches Bank, 
and Karl Heynen, whose past record had been 
auspicious, as agent for Mexico of the Hamburg- 
American Line. Heynen it was who had smug- 
gled a cargo of arms ashore for Huerta at Vera 
Cruz, under the nose of the American fleet; he 
had received some 40,000 pesos (Mexican) for 
the coup, and he was regarded as a capable indi- 
vidual. On March 31, 1915, the Bridgeport Pro- 



^ 



216 The German Secret Service in America 

jectile Company was incorporated for $2,000,000, 
paid in, with Walter Knight as president, Heynen 
as treasurer, and Karl Foster as secretary and 
counsel. 

Schmidt drew up a contract with the new-born 
company calling for a large order of shells. On 
May 17 Heynen reported to Albert that 534 hy- 
draulic presses for making shells of calibres 2.95 
to 4.8 had been ordered, and would cost $417,550. 
These orders, with all others for tools and ma- 
chinery which the Bridgeport company placed, 
were so well concealed about the business world 
that as late as August the impression was current 
that Great Britain was financing the company. 
On June 30 Heynen reported to Albert through 
Schmidt that the first shell cases would be manu- 
factured under United States government inspec- 
tion, in order to create the impression that the 
company was anxious for American contracts, 
and so that immediate delivery could be made in 
case such contracts were actually secured. "The 
most important buildings, forges, and machine 
shops, are almost under roof ; the other buildings 
are fairly under way ; presses, machinery and all 
other materials are being promptly assembled, 
and there is every indication that deliveries will 
commence as provided in the contract; i. e., on 
Sept. 1st, 1915." 



Commercial Ventures 217 

The Bridgeport Projectile Company contracted 
with the ^Etna Powder Company, one of the 
largest producers of explosives in America, for 
its entire output up to January, 1916, and then 
turned round and offered the Spanish government 
a million pounds of powder. The Spanish repre- 
sentatives may have suspected the identity of the 
company, for they raised certain objections to the 
contract, to which Heynen refused to listen, and 
he also reported to his superiors that British and 
Russian purchasing agents were going to call on 
him within a few days. He made a contract with 
Henry Disston & Co. for two million pieces of 
steel, most of them tools, for which Schmidt ad- 
vanced the money. He contracted with the Cam- 
den Iron Works of Camden, N. J., for presses, 
and posted a forfeit of $165,000 in case the con- 
tract should be cancelled ; the contract was signed 
and cancelled the next day by the Bridgeport 
company, causing the Camden concern great busi- 
ness difficulty. 

Thus, by the manipulation of contracts, Dr. Al- 
bert and his associates were accomplishing the 
following ends : 

1. Arranging to supply Germany with shells 
and powder (as soon as smuggling could be ef- 
fected) at a time when official Germany was at- 
tempting to persuade the United States to place 



218 The German Secret Service in America 

an embargo on the shipment of war materials to 
the Allies. 

2. Securing a monopoly on all powder avail- 
able. 

3. So tying up the machinery and tool manu- 
facturers that all their production for months to 
come was under contract to the Bridgeport Pro- 
jectile Company, yet so wielding the cancellation 
clauses in its contracts that delivery could be de- 
layed and the date further postponed when the 
manufacturers of machinery and tools could be 
free to take Allied orders. 

4. Arranging to accept contracts for the United 
States and the Allies under such provisions that 
there would be no impossible forfeit if the con- 
tracts could not be fulfilled. This would have the 
effect of making the Allies believe that they were 
going to receive supplies which the Bridgeport 
Projectile Company had no intention of furnish- 
ing them. 

5. Heynen, by the contract with the munitions 
industry, which his work afforded, knew where 
Allied orders for shells were placed, and he 
learned to his pleasure that the Allies were being 
forced to contract for shrapnel which was forged 
— a less satisfactory process than pressing. He 
also learned that the first two orders for forged 



Commercial Ventures 219 

shrapnel placed by the Allies had been rejected 
because the product was inferior. 

6. Paying abnormal wages with the unlimited 
funds at its disposal, stealing labor from the 
Union Metallic Cartridge Company in Bridge- 
port, and generally unsettling the labor situation. 

7. Offering powder to Spain, a neutral with 
strong German affiliations. 

The project was glorious in its forecast. But 
we may well let a German hand describe how it 
failed; among the papers captured by the British 
on the war correspondent and secret messenger 
Archibald at Falmouth in late August was a letter 
from Captain von Papen to his wife in Germany, 
in which he said: 

"Our good friend Albert has been robbed of a 
thick portfolio of papers on the elevated road. 
English secret service men of course." (Papen 
was not altogether correct in this statement.) 
"Unfortunately, some very important matters 
from my report are among the papers, such as the 
purchase of liquid chlorine, the correspondence 
with the Bridgeport Projectile Company, as well 
as documents relating to the purchase of phenol, 
from which explosives are manufactured, and the 
acquisition of Wright's aeroplane patents. I 
send you also the reply of Albert, in order that you 



220 The German Secret Service in America 

may see how we protect ourselves. This we com- 
pounded last night in collaboration." * 

Dr. Albert could hardly have chosen a more un- 
fortunate set of documents to carry about with 
him and lose. "Pitiless publicity" was his re- 
ward, and the statement which he and von Papen 
prepared in refutation and denial was received by 
those in authority as precisely the sort of denial 
which any unscrupulous and able master of in- 
trigue might be expected to issue under the cir- 
cumstances — and no more. If there had been 
any doubt of the perniciousness of his activities 
— and there was none — it would have been dis- 
pelled by the seizure of the Archibald letters, but 
the result of the exposures of German activity 
which made the New York World, a newspaper 
worth watching during August and September, 
191 5, was not the expulsion of Dr. Albert, but of 
the military and naval attaches. Albert, while 
he had been magnificently busy attempting to dis- 
turb America's calm, had been cunning enough to 
keep his hands free of blood and powder smoke; 

1 The captain added: "The sinking of the Adriatic" (by 
which he meant the Arabic, which had been sunk without warn- 
ing on August 19, with a loss of sixteen lives, two of them 
American), "may be the last straw for the sake of our cause. 
I hope the matter will blow over." On October 5 the German 
Government, consistent with its assurance of September 1 that 
no more ships would be sunk without warning, disavowed the 
sinking of the Arabic, and offered to pay indemnities. So the 
matter "blew over." 



Commercial Ventures 221 

Boy-Ed and von Papen had to answer for the 
origination of so many crimes that it is almost 
incredible in the light of later events that they 
escaped with nothing more than a dismissal. On 
December 4, Secretary Lansing demanded their 
recall on account of their connection "with the 
illegal and questionable acts of certain persons 
within the United States"; Bernstorff made no 
reply for ten days, and received a sharp reminder 
for his delay; he then replied that the Kaiser 
agreed to the recall. Four days before Christ- 
mas von Papen sailed for England and Holland. 
On January 2 and 3, 191 6, his effects were 
searched by the British at Falmouth and two 
documents among others found may be cited here. 
Boy-Ed sailed on New Year's Day, but with 
no incriminating documents, for he had been 
warned. 

The first document found on von Papen was a 
letter from President Knight of the Bridgeport 
Projectile Company, dated Sept. 11, 1915, ad- 
dressed to Heynen at 60 Wall Street — the build- 
ing in which von Papen had his office — giving 
certain specifications for shells that were being 
made in the new Bridgeport plant ; the second was 
a memorandum of an interview on December 21, 
between Papen, Heynen, G. W. Hoadley of the 
affiliated American-British Manufacturing Com- 



222 The German Secret Service in America 

pany, and Captain Hans Tauscher. The four 
men had discussed specifications for a time, and 
had agreed that firing tests of the projectiles 
could be made "in a bomb-proof place by electri- 
cal explosion." Delays in production at Bridge- 
port are evident in the last sentence of the mem- 
orandum : 

"It was agreed that Mr. Hoadley, till date, has com- 
plied with all the conditions of the contracts of the 1st 
April, with the exception of the commencement of the 
delivery of the shells, which is due to force majeure, i. e., 
to failure to timely obtain the delivery of machinery and 
tools occasioned by strikes in the machine factories." 

A letter to von Papen from Dr. Albert, then in 
San Francisco, undated but obviously written in 
December, 191 5, contained these farewell senti- 
ments : 

"Dear Herr von Papen, 

"Well, then! How I wish I were in New York and 
could discuss the situation with you and B. E. . . . So 
we shall not see each other for the present. Shall we at 
all before you leave? It would be my most anxious 
wish • but my hope is small. From this time, I suppose, 
matters will move more quickly than in Dumba's case. 
I wonder whether our Government will respond in a 
suitable manner ! In my opinion it need no longer take 
public opinion so much into consideration, in spite of it 
being artificially and intentionally agitated by the press 
and the legal proceedings, so that a somewhat 'stiffer' at- 



Commercial Ventures 223 

titude would be desirable, naturally quiet and dignified! 
. . . Please remember me to your chief personally. I 
assume that he still remembers me from the time of the 
'experimental establishment for aircraft,' and give my 
best wishes to Mr. Scheuch, and tell him that the struggle 
on the American front is sometimes very hard. . . . 
When I think of your and Boy-Ed's departure, and that 
I alone remain behind in New York, I could — well, 
better not ! " 

Perhaps Dr. Albert would have accompanied 
the attaches had not the submarine situation been 
so acute. For while the Government had in its 
possession sufficient provocation for his dismissal, 
and that of Count von Bernstorfl as well, the 
Government's desire at that time was peace, and 
stubbornly, patiently, it clung to its ideal in a 
dogged attempt to preserve its neutrality. Dr. 
Albert had run the British blockade with his sup- 
plies for Germany, and had roared protest when 
Great Britain seized cargoes of meat intended for 
Germany, although she paid the packers for them 
in full. He had floated a German loan through 
Chandler & Company, a New York house of 
which Rudolph Hecht, one of his agents, was a 
member ; he had sold $500,000,000 worth of Ger- 
man securities ; to sum up his financial activities, 
he had played every trick he knew, and his last 
year in America was unfruitful of result, for he 



224 The German Secret Service in America 

was watched. He returned to Germany person- 
ally enriched, for time and again, prompted by 
stock tips from his German friends on stocks or 
"September lard," and by diplomatic information 
which he knew would influence the stock market, 
he made handsome winnings for von Bernstorff 
and himself. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE PUBLIC MIND 

Dr. Bertling — The Staats-Zeitung — George Sylvester 
Viereck and The Fatherland — Efforts to buy a press asso- 
ciation — Bernhardi's articles — Marcus Braun and Fair 
Play — Plans for a German news syndicate — Sander, 
Wunnenberg, Bacon and motion pictures — The German- 
American Alliance — Its purposes — Political activities — • 
Colquitt of Texas — The "Wisconsin Plan" — Lobbying — 
Misappropriation of German Red Cross funds — Friends 
of Peace — The American Truth Society. 

Some one has said that America will emerge 
from this war a gigantic national entity, a colos- 
sus wrought of the fused metal of her scores of 
mixed nationalities. That is naturally desirable, 
and historically probable. If such is the result, 
Germany will have lost for all time one of her 
most powerful allies — the German population in 
the United States. Nearly one-tenth of the pop- 
ulation of the United States in 1914 was of either 
German birth or parentage. Ethnic lines are not 
erased in a generation except by some great emer- 
gency, such as war affords. Germany is doomed 
to a, deserved disappointment in the loss of her 

225 



226 The German Secret Service in America 

American stock — deserved because she tried so 
hard to Germanize America. 

She wasted no time in injecting her verbal 
propagandists into the struggle on the American 
front. On August 20, 1914, Dr. Karl Oskar 
Bertling, assistant director of the Amerika In- 
stitut in Berlin, landed in New York, and went 
at once to report to von BernstorfT. The Amer- 
ika Institut had of recent years made considerable 
progress in familiarizing Germany with Ameri- 
can affairs; its chief director, Dr. Walther 
Drechsler, had been master of German in Mid- 
dlesex, a prominent boys' school in Massachu- 
setts; he returned to Berlin in 1913 and was 
attached, upon the outbreak of war, to the 
press office. All who were associated with it 
knew something of America. It is characteristic 
of the convertibility of German institutions to 
war that another executive of this organization, 
employed in peace times to cement the friendship 
between the two nations, should be sent on the 
day war was declared to America to establish a 
German press bureau. 

Dr. Bertling went about delivering pro-Ger- 
man speeches, and prepared articles for the press 
on international questions. These he submitted 
to BernstorfT himself for approval — one such 
story was to be published in a Sunday magazine 



The Public Mind 227 

supplement to a long "string" of American news- 
papers. Although every editor was on the look- 
out for any "war stuff" which was written with 
any apparent background of European politics, he 
found small market for his wares among the New 
York newspapers, and some of his speaking dates 
were cancelled. He proposed to publish, with 
one of his stories, a set of German military maps 
of Belgium, but to this von Papen wrote him on 
November 21 : "I entirely agree with you in your 
opinion in regard to the maps — it is a two-edged 
sword," and he added : "One observes how very 
ill-informed the average American is." Bert- 
ling's lack of accomplishment drew censure, how- 
ever, from several sources : the head of the Ger- 
man-American Chamber of Commerce in Berlin 
chided him for not having carried out his "spe- 
cial mission to supply a cable service to South 
America and China," and the late Professor Hugo 
Muensterberg of Harvard waxed righteously in- 
dignant over the fact that Bertling opened and 
read a letter entrusted by the psychologist to him 
for safe delivery to Dr. Dernburg. Bertling ap- 
plied to the Embassy for special employment, and 
on March 19, 1915, the ambassador's private sec- 
retary wrote him : 

"His Excellency is entirely agreeable to giving 
you the desired employment, but he considers the 



228 The German Secret Service in America 

present conditions too uncertain, as his departure 
for Germany in the near future is not impossible." 

Excellent testimony to the subtle iniquity of his 
task lies in the names of the men whose pro-Ally 
utterances he was striving to counteract. In a 
letter written December 20, 19 14, to Bertling by 
C. W. Ernst, a Bostonian of German birth and 
American naturalization, appears this passage : 

"Is it prudent to defend the German cause 
against such men as C. W. Eliot and other Ameri- 
cans who consider themselves artistocratic and 
important? . . . Who, apparently, was of more 
importance than Roosevelt, to whom now even 
the dogs pay no attention? . . . The feeling of 
men like Eliot, C. F. Adams, etc., is well under- 
stood. German they know not. They under- 
stand neither Luther nor Kant, nor the history 
of Germany. . . . Tactically it is a mistake to be 
easy going with England, or in discussion with 
her American toadies. By curtness, defiance, 
irony one can get much further. . . ." 

His friend in the German-American Chamber 
of Commerce wrote again to Berlin in a vein 
which showed how closely Germany herself was 
watching publicity in America. "Viereck has 
sent me a letter," he said, "and Harper's printed 
some matter by way of Italy. . . . The Foreign 
Office and the War Department urgently want 



The Public Mind 229 

more reports sent here. If cables through neu- 
tral countries are not feasible, could not Ameri- 
cans travelling be called upon? More steam, 
please. . . . The exchange professors should get 
busy. . . . One is quite surprised here that with 
the exception of Burgess and possibly Sloan, no- 
body seems to be doing anything. . . . Nasmith's 
article, 'The Case for Germany/ in the Outlook 
is very good — inspired by me. The same o£ 
Mead's in Everybody's." 

And again : "We will dog Uncle Sam's foot- 
steps with painful accuracy — his sloppy, obstin- 
ate, pro-English neutrality we utterly repudiate. 
When God wishes to punish a country he gives it 
a W. J. B. as Secretary of State." 

(When Bryan resigned, German rumors were 
circulated from time to time that Secretary Lans- 
ing, who succeeded him, had had a falling out with 
President Wilson, and was himself on the point 
of resigning. What Herr Walther thought of 
"W. J. B." 's successor is a matter of conjecture.)- 

The documents found in Dr. Bertling's posses- 
sion, and the method of securing them, brought 
forth a sharp editorial from Bernard Bidder of 
the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, then one of the 
stanch members of the foreign language press en- 
gaged in defending Germany. Dr. Bertling re- 
mained unmolested in the United States until 



230 The German Secret Service in America 

April, 19 18, when he was arrested as an enemy 
alien in Lexington, Mass., and interned. Dr. 
Bernhardt Dernburg, to quote the words of a 
German associate, "had some propaganda and 
wrote some articles for the newspapers" . . . and 
was "certainly in connection with the German 
Government," gave Adolph Pavenstedt $15,000 
in early October, 1914. To this Pavenstedt 
added $5,000, and on October 12 paid the sum of 
$20,000 to the Staats-Zeitung, to tide the news- 
paper over a rough financial period. "I ex- 
pected/' said Pavenstedt, "that if the business 
were bankrupt it would be lost to the Ridders, 
who have always followed a very good course for 
the German interests here." 

Soon after the war began George Sylvester 
iViereck brought out his publication, The Father- 
land, a moderately clever attempt to appeal to in- 
telligent readers in Germany's behalf. On July 
[1, 191 5, the publication having stumbled along a 
rocky financial path — for no publication dis- 
tributed gratis can make money — Dr. Albert 
wrote Viereck : 

"Your account for the $1,500 — bonus, after 
deducting the $250 received, for the month of 
June, 191 5, has been received. I hope in the 
course of the next week to be able to make pay- 
ment. In the meantime, I request the proposal 





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The Public Mind 231 

of a suitable person who can ascertain accurately 
and prove the financial condition of your paper. 
From the moment when we guarantee you a 
regular advance, I must 

"i. Have a new statement of the condition of 
your paper. 

"2. Practise a control over the financial man- 
agement. 

"In addition to this we must have an under- 
standing regarding the course in politics which 
you will pursue, which we have not asked hereto- 
fore. Perhaps you will be kind enough to talk 
the matter over on the basis of this letter, with 
Mr. Fuehr." Fuehr's office was across the hall 
from Viereck. 

Viereck had assembled about him among oth- 
ers a staff of contributors which included Dr. 
Dernburg, Frank Koester, Rudolph Kronau, J. 
Bernard Rethey, a writer who affects the nom 
de plume of "Oliver Ames," Edmund von Mach 
(whose brother is an official of some prominence 
in Germany), and Ram Chandra (the editor of 
a revolutionary Hindu newspaper published in 
California). Viereck, in his paper, forecasted 
the sinking of the Lusitania and later gloated 
over it as well as over the murder of Edith Ca- 
vell. His father is the Berlin correspondent of 
his paper. They are both "naturalized" citizens 



232 The German Secret Service in America 

of the United States. One of his contributors, 
as late as 1918, wrote for Viereck a peculiarly 
suspicious essay on his conversion to American- 
ism, setting forth in exhaustive detail the pro- 
German convictions which he had previously 
held, and the justification for them, and winding 
up with a pallid renunciation of them, the docu- 
ment as a whole intended ostensibly to stimulate 
patriotism, while in reality it would have re- 
kindled the dying German apology. The perni- 
cious Viereck, whose mental stature may be 
judged by the fact that he treasured a violet from 
the grave of Oscar Wilde, sought to interest 
the Embassy in his merits as a publisher of Ger- 
man books, and was supported, as pro-German 
volumes were issued from the Jackson Press 
which he controlled. He suggested, too, to Dr. 
Albert names of American publishing houses as 
excellent media for bringing out propaganda 
books on account of their obvious innocence of 
German sympathies. 

A more patent attempt to influence the public 
originated in the German Embassy itself. Dr. 
Albert, through intermediaries, schemed to ob- 
tain for $900,000 control of a press association. 
The sale was not made. One of Dr. Albert's 
agents, M. B. Claussen, formerly publicity agent 
for the Hamburg-American Line, established in 



The Public Mind 233 

the Hotel Astor, New York, the "German Infor- 
mation Bureau" for disseminating "impartial 
news about the war" and "keeping the American 
mind from becoming prejudiced," and he issued 
many a red-white-and-black statement to the 
newspapers. 

The German interests also had designs on buy- 
ing an important New York evening newspaper, 
the Mail. One of von Papen's assistants, George 
von Skal, a former reporter (and the predecessor 
as commissioner of accounts of John Purroy 
Mitchel, New York's "fighting mayor"), entered 
the negotiations in a letter written by Paul T. 
Davis to Dr. Albert at the embassy. This letter, 
dated, June 21, 191 5, set forth that — 

"In November, 1914, my father, George H. 
Davis, conceived the idea that Germany ought 
to be represented in New York by one of the 
papers printed in English. He spoke to a number 
of German-Americans about the scheme and 
finally through Mr. George von Skal got in touch 
with Ambassador Count von BernstorfL Mr. 
Percival Kuhne acted as the head of the move- 
ment until it was found that he could not devote 
the necessary time to the matter in hand and at 
father's suggestion Mr. Ludwig Nissen was sub- 
stituted. . . . We decided upon the Mail as the 
only paper that was not too expensive. . . . We 



234 The German Secret Service in America 

opened negotiations with the proprietors of the 
Mail and proceeded until Ambassador Count von 
Bernstorff notified both Mr. Kuhne and Mr. 
Nissen that at that time nothing further should 
be done in the matter. . . ." 

The Mail was sold, however, to Dr. Rumely. - 

Dr. Albert collected for General Franz Bern- 
hardi the proceeds of the publication in American 
newspapers of the latter's famous "Germany and 
the Next War." Bernhardi wrote von Papen on 
April 9, 1915: 

"I have now written two further series of 
articles for America. The Foreign Office wanted 
to have the first of these, entitled 'Germany and 
England,' distributed in the American press; the 
other, entitled 'Pan-Germanism,' was to appear 
in the Chicago Tribune. They will certainly 
have some sort of effect, this is evident from the 
inexpressible rage with which the British and 
French press have attacked those Sun articles." 

Bernstorff and Papen, under orders from 
Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg, in May, 
191 5, had under consideration the payment of 
from $1,000 to $1,200 for the expenses of a trip 
to Germany for Edward Lyell Fox, a newspaper 
writer, who "at the time of his last sojourn in 
Germany" (in 1914)" was of great benefit to us 
by reason of his good despatches." 




Ccpjright, International Film Strvict 



George Sylvester Viereck. founder and Editor of The Father- 
land a pro-German propaganda weekly known later 
as Viereck 's Weekly 



The Public Mind 235 

Von Bernstorff himself wrote on March 15, 
191 5, to Marcus Braun, a Hungarian, and editor 
of a review called Fair Play : 

"My dear Mr. Braun: 

"In answer to your favor of the 12th instant, I beg to 
say that I have read the monthly review Fair Play for 
the last 3 years, and I can state that this publication is 
living up to its name, and that it has always taken the 
American point of view. During the last 7 months Fair 
Play has, in its editorial policy, treated all belligerents 
justly and thereby rendered great services to the millions 
of foreign born citizens in this country, especially to those 
of German and Austro-Hungarian origin. Fair Play 
has fought for the rights of the latter and for truth, al- 
ways maintaining an American attitude and showing true 
American spirit. 

"You are at liberty to show this letter to anybody who 
is interested in the matter, but I beg you not to publish it, 
as to (do) this would be contrary to the instructions of 
my government, who does not wish me to publicly adver- 
tise any review or newspaper. 

"Very sincerely yours, 

"J. Bernstorff." 

On May 28, 191 5, J. Bernstorff signed another 
gratifying document for the same Braun — a 
check for $5,000 payable to the Fair Play Print- 
ing & Publishing Company. Such was the re- 
ward of "true American spirit." 

When Germany embarked upon an enterprise 



236 The German Secret Service in America 

she usually followed charts prepared by trained 
surveyors. Her attempts at newspaper and 
magazine propaganda in the first ten months of 
war had been hastily conceived and not altogether 
successful. One of the most comprehensive re- 
ports which have come to light is a recommenda- 
tion, dated July, 191 5, in which the investigator 
discusses the feasibility of a strong German news- 
syndicate in America. 

It was to be operated by two bureaus, one in 
Berlin as headquarters for all news and pictures 
from Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and 
the Balkans, one in New York for distribution 
of the matter to the American press. Corre- 
spondents from America were to be given the 
privileges of both Eastern and Western fronts, 
from 3,000 to 4,000 words a day were to be sent 
by wireless from Nauen to Sayville, secret codes 
were to be arranged so that the cable news might 
be smuggled past the enemy in the guise of com- 
mercial messages. The bureau in New York 
was to gather American news for Germany, and 
the service was eventually to extend over the 
whole world. 

"In fact," said the report, "it will be particu- 
larly desirable to inaugurate the Chinese service 
at once, so that the American public is informed 
about that which really happens in order to create 



GERMAN EMBASSY 
WASHINGTON. UC. 

Washington, D.C., March 15, 1915. 

j.Nfl JfJW 

My dear Mr. Braun, 

In answer to your favor of 12th instant I beg to 
say that I have read the monthly review „Fair Play" fcr 
the last 3 years, and I can state that this publication 
has been living up to its name and that it has always 
taken the American point of view. During the last 7 
months .Fair Play" has, in Its editorial policy, treat* 
all belligerents justly and thereby rendered. great 
services to the millions of foreign born citizens of 
this country, especially to those of German and Austto- 
Hungarian origin. „Fair Play" has fought for the rights 
of the latter and for truth, always maintaining an 
American attitude and showing true American spirit. 

You are at liberty to show this letter to anybody 
who is interested in the matter, but I beg you not to 
publish it, as to this would be contrary to the 
instructions of my Government, who does not wish me 
to publicly advertize any reviews or newspaper. 
Very sincerely yours, 



Marcus Braun, Esq., 
Editor of „Fair Play" 

New York City. 



f/k^-fif 



Fac-simile of a letter from Count von Bernstorff 
to the editor of "Fair Play" 



The Public Mind 237 

an effective counter-weight against the Japanese 
propaganda in the American press." 

The New York bureau was estimated to cost 
$6,640 per month, the bureau in Berlin about half 
that sum ; two years' effort would have cost about 
$200,000. The writer proposed to establish a 
lecture service as auxiliary, the total expenses 
of which, covering the Chautauquas of one 
summer, he estimated at $75,000. The investi- 
gator concluded: 

"Hoping that my proposals will lead to a suc- 
cessful result, I will take the liberty of advising 
in the interest of the German cause — aside from 
the fact whether my proposals will be carried 
out or not — that the following should be avoided 
on the part of Germany in the future : 

"1. The Belgian neutrality question as well as 
the question of the Belgian atrocities should not 
be mentioned any more in the future. 

"2. It should not be tried any more in America 
to put the blame for the world war and its con- 
sequences alone on England, as a considerable 
English element still exists in America, and the 
American people hold to the view that all parties, 
as usual, are partly guilty for the war. 

"3. The pride and imagination of the Ameri- 
cans with regard to their culture should not con- 
tinually be offended by the assertion that German 



238 The German Secret Service in America 

culture is the only real culture and surpasses 
everything else. 

"4. The publication of purely scientific pam- 
phlets should be avoided in the future as far as 
the American people are concerned, as their dry 
reading annoys the American and is. incompre- 
hensible to him. 

"5. Finally it is of the utmost importance that 
the authorities as well as the German people cease 
continually to discuss publicly the delivery of 
American arms and ammunition, as well as to let 
every American feel their displeasure about it." 

The Foreign Office never saw fit to act upon 
the investigator's proposals, for less than a month 
after he had written his report, it appeared, 
verbatim, in the columns of a New York news- 
paper. Axiom: The most effective means of 
fighting enemy propaganda is by propaganda for 
which the enemy unwittingly supplies the ma- 
terial. 

Motion pictures appealed to the Germans as a" 
practical and graphic means of spreading through 
America visual proof of their kindness to prison- 
ers, their prodigious success with new engines of 
war, and their brutal reception at the hands of 
the nations they were forced in self-defence to 
invade. So Dr. Albert financed the American 
Correspondent Film Company, two of whose 




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The Public Mind 239 

stockholders were Claussen and Dr. Karl A. 
Fuehr, a translator in Viereck's office. As late 
as August, 19 1 6, Karl Wunnenberg and Albert 
A. Sander, of the "Central Powers Film Com- 
pany," which was also subsidized to circulate 
German-made moving pictures, engaged George 
Vaux Bacon, a free-lance theatrical press agent, 
to go to England at a salary of $100 a week, ob- 
tain valuable information, and transmit it in 
writing in invisible ink to Holland, where it would 
be forwarded to Germany. The two principals 
were later indicted on a charge of having set 
afoot a military enterprise against Great Britain, 
and were sentenced to two years in prison ; Bacon, 
the cat's-paw, received a year's sentence. ( San- 
der, a German, had been involved in secret-agent 
work on a previous occasion when he assaulted 
Richard Stegler for not disavowing an affidavit 
explaining his acquisition of a false passport.) 
The secret ink they gave Bacon was invisible un- 
der all conditions unless a certain chemical prepa- 
ration, which could be compounded only with dis- 
tilled water, was applied to it. 

At the start of the war there began in Con- 
gress a vehement debate over the question of im- 
posing a legislative embargo on the shipment of 
arms and ammunition to the Allies. In these de- 
bates participated men who undoubtedly were 



240 The German Secret Service in America 

sincere in the convictions they expressed. Never- 
theless, in the late winter and early spring of 
191 5, a hireling of the Germans began to seek 
secret conferences with congressmen in a Wash- 
ington hotel and to outline to them plans for com- 
pelling an embargo on munitions. His activities 
bring us to the affairs of the National German- 
American Alliance, Germany's most powerful and 
least tangible factor of general propaganda in the 
United States. 

The organization had a large membership 
among Germans in America; it has been esti- 
mated that there were three million members, 
who constituted a great majority of the adult 
German-American population. It received a 
Federal charter in 1907. The Alliance, to quote 
Professor John William Scholl, of the University 
of Michigan, (in the New York Times of March 
2, 1918), "strives to awaken a sense of unity 
among the people of German origin in America; 
to 'centralize' their powers for the 'energetic de- 
fense of such justified wishes and interests' as are 
not contrary to the rights and duties of good 
citizens ; to defend its class against 'nativistic en- 
croachments' ; to 'foster and assure good, friendly 
relations of America to the old German father- 
land.' Such are its declared objects. 

"All petty quibbling aside, this programme can 



The Public Mind 24U 

mean nothing else than the maintenance of a 
Germanized body of citizens among us, conscious 
of their separateness, resistent to all forces of 
absorption. It is mere camouflage to state in a 
later paragraph that this body does not intend 
to found a 'State within the State/ but merely sees 
in this centralization the 'best means of attaining 
and maintaining the aims' set forth above. 

"All existing societies of Germans are called 
upon as 'organized representatives of Deutsch- 
tum' to make it a point of honor to form a national 
alliance, to foster formation of new societies in 
all States of the Union, so that the whole mass 
of Germans in America can be used as a unit for 
political action. This league pledges itself 'with 
all legal means at hand unswervingly and at 
all times to enter the lists for the maintenance 
and propagation of its principles for their vigor- 
ous defense wherever and whenever in danger.' " 

Professor Scholl, himself a teacher of German, 
continues : "A little attention to the context of 
the sentences quoted shows that these Germans 
demand the privilege of coming to America, 
getting citizenship on the easiest terms possible, 
while maintaining intact their alien speech, alien 
customs, and alien loyalties. That is 'assimila- 
tion,' the granting of equal political rights and 
commercial opportunities, without exacting any 



242 The German Secret Service in America 

alteration in modes of life or 'Sittlichkeit.' 'Ab- 
sorption' means Americanization, a fusing with 
the whole mass of American life, an adoption of 
the language and ideals of the country, a spiritual 
rebirth into Anglo-Saxon civilization, and this 
has great terrors for the members of a German 
alliance. 

"A glance back over the whole scheme will 
show how cleverly it was made to unite the aver- 
age recent comeoverer with his beer-drinking pro- 
clivities, with the professor of German, who had 
visions of increased interest in his specialty, and 
the professor of history, who hoped for larger 
journal space and ampler funds, and the readily 
flattered wealthy German of some attainments, 
into a close league of interests, which could be 
used at the proper time for almost any nefarious 
purpose which a few men might dictate. 

"Add to this the emphatic moral and financial 
support of the German-language press as one of 
the most powerful agencies of the organization, 
and we have the stage set for just what happened 
a little over three years ago." 

The Alliance, long before the war, had been 
active in extending German influence. Among 
other affairs, it had arranged the visit of Prince 
Henry of Prussia. Its president, Dr. C. J. 
Hexamer, whose headquarters were in Philadel- 



The Public Mind 243 

phia, had received special recognition from the 
Kaiser for his efforts — efforts which may be 
briefly set forth in a speech addressed to Germans 
in Milwaukee by Hexamer himself : 

"You have been long-suffering' under the 
preachment that you must be assimilated, but we 
shall never descend to an inferior culture. We 
are giving to these people the benefits of German 
culture." 

The outbreak of war made the Alliance an ex- 
ceedingly important, if unwieldy, instrument for 
shaping public opinion. It promoted and spon- 
sored a so-called National Embargo Conference 
in Chicago in 191 5, working hand-in-glove with 
Labor's National Peace Council in an attempt to 
persuade Congress to pass a law forbidding the 
export of munitions. At every congressional 
election, particularly in such cities as Chicago, 
Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and St. Louis, the hand of 
Prussia was stirring about. When O. B. Col- 
quitt, a former governor of Texas, decided to 
run for the Senate in late 1915, he corresponded 
with the editors of the Staats-Zeitung and a New 
York member of the Alliance for support from 
the German press and the German vote in his 
state. 

The next year saw the approach of a presi- 
dential campaign, and the Alliance established a 



244 The German Secret Service in America 

campaign headquarters in New York to dictate 
which candidates for United States offices should 
receive the solid German-American vote. Such 
candidates had to record themselves as opposed 
to the policies of the Administration. An effort 
was made to further the nomination of Champ 
Clark as the Democratic candidate, succeeding 
Wilson. A German professor, Leo Stern, super- 
intendent of schools in- Milwaukee, after a con- 
ference with Hexamer there, wrote to the New 
York headquarters approving the "Wisconsin 
plan" (Hexamer's) for swaying the Republican 
national convention. This plan set forth that "it 
is necessary that a portion of the delegations to 
the . . . convention — a quarter to a third — shall 
consist of approved, distinguished German- 
Americans." The Alliance was bitterly opposed 
to Wilson, it hated the lashing tongue and the 
keen nose of Theodore Roosevelt, it distrusted 
Elihu Root, and deriving much of its income from 
the liquor business, it feared prohibition. 

Politically the Alliance was constantly active. 
It supported in early 191 6, through its friendly 
congressmen, the McLemore and Gore resolu- 
tions, the latter of which, according to Hexamer, 
deserved passage, because it would — 

"1. Refuse passports to Americans travelling 
on ships, of the belligerents. 



The Public Mind 245 

"2. Place an embargo on contraband of war. 

"3. Prohibit Federal Reserve Banks from sub- 
scribing- to foreign loans." The Alliance's lobby- 
ist called on Senators Stone, Gore, O'Gorman, 
Hitchcock (all of whom he reported as "opposed 
to Lansing"), Senator Smith of Arizona, 
Senators Kern, Martine, Lewis ("our friend"), 
Smith of Georgia, Works, Jones, Chamberlain, 
McCumber, Cummins, Borah and Clapp. Borah, 
he said, had "a fool idea about Americans going 
everywhere." In the House of Representatives 
he canvassed the Democratic and Republican 
leaders, Kitchin and Mann, and a group "all of 
whom want the freedom of the seas," which in- 
cluded Dillon of South Dakota, Bennett of New 
York, Smith of Buffalo, Kinchloe of New York, 
Shackleford of Missouri, and Staley and Decker 
of Kentucky. "I saw Padgett, chairman of the 
house naval affairs committee," he continued, 
"he will fall in line after a while. ... I am work- 
ing with Stephens of the House and Gore of the 
Senate to put their bills in one bill as a joint reso- 
lution. I have told them that my league would 
aid them in getting members of the Llouse and 
the Senate, as well as helping them with propa- 
ganda (this was their suggestion)." 

The resolutions failed. 

All these activities cost money. The German 



246 The German Secret Service in America 

Embassy through Dr. Albert furnished the head- 
quarters of the Alliance with sufficient funds for 
its many purposes. Count von Bernstorff is al- 
leged to have handled a large fund for bribery of 
American legislators, but the fact has never been 
established, beyond his request in January, 19 17, 
for $50,000, for such purposes. It is a fact, how- 
ever, that the National German-American Al- 
liance collected a sum of $886,670 during the 
years 1914-1917 for the German Red Cross; this 
was turned over to von Bernstorff for transmis- 
sion to Germany, and officers of the Alliance have 
admitted that of this sum about $700,000 was 
probably employed in propaganda by Dr. Dern- 
burg and Dr. Meyer-Gerhardt, who posed as the 
head of the German Red Cross in America. 
Contributions to the German and Austrian relief 
funds came in as late as October, 191 7, although 
no part of them were forwarded to Europe after 
the entrance of America into the war. 

This last event occasioned further activity on 
the part of the Alliance ; during the period which 
followed the break in diplomatic relaxations, and 
while Congress was debating the question of war, 
members of Congress were deluged with an 
extraordinary flood of telegrams from German- 
Americans cautioning them against taking such 
a step. These telegrams were prepared by the 



The Public Mind 247 

Alliance and the "American Neutrality League" 
and circulated among their members and sym- 
pathizers, to be sent to Washington. The Al- 
liance then issued to its branches throughout the 
states a resolution of loyalty to be adopted in 
case war was declared. This resolution, after 
making a hearty declaration of loyalty to the 
United States, went on to belie its promise with 
such pacifist utterances as this : 

"Our duty before the war was to keep out of it. 
Our duty now is to get out of it." 

So earnest were the efforts of the Alliance to 
keep out of war that some ten months after its 
declaration of loyalty was promulgated, Congress 
decided to investigate the organization, with a 
view to revoking its charter. The investigation 
wrote into the archives certain characteristics of 
the Alliance which had long been obvious to the 
truly American public; its deep-rooted Teuton- 
ism, its persistent zeal, and its dangerous scope of 
activity. The courageous legislators who initiated 
and pursued the investigation, in the face of con- 
stant opposition of the most tortuous variety, had 
their reward, for on April n, 1918, the executive 
committee of the National Alliance met in Phila- 
delphia and dissolved the organization, turned the 
$30,000 in its coffers over to the American Red 
Cross, and uttered a swan song of loyalty to the 



248 The German Secret Service in America 

United States. The body of the octopus was 
dead. One by one, first in Brooklyn, then in San 
Francisco, then elsewhere, its tentacles sloughed 
away. 

A word for the pacifists. One pacifist consti- 
tutes a quorum in any society. There were in 
America at the outbreak of war one hundred 
million people who disliked war. As the injus- 
tices of Germany multiplied, the patriotic war- 
haters became militarists, and there sprang up 
little groups of malcontents who resented, usually 
by German consent, any tendency on the part of 
the Government to avenge the insult to its inde- 
pendence. Social and industrial fanatics of all 
descriptions flocked to the standard of "Peace at 
Any Price," and for want of a dissenting audience 
soon convinced themselves that they had some- 
thing to say. 

Many of the peace movements which were set 
going during the first three years of the war were 
sincere, many were not. A mass meeting held at 
Madison Square Garden in 191 5 at which Bryan 
was the chief speaker, was inspired by Germany. 
In the insincere class falls also the "Friends of 
Peace," organized in 191 5. Its letterhead bore 
the invitation : "Attend the National Peace Con- 
vention, Chicago, Sept. 5 and 6," and incidentally 
betrayed the origin of the society. The letter- 



The Public Mind 249 

head stated that the society represented the 
American Truth Society (an offshoot of the 
National German-American Alliance), The 
American Women of German Descent, the Amer- 
ican Fair Play Society, the German-American 
Alliance of Greater New York, the German Cath- 
olic Federation of New York, the United Irish- 
American Societies and the United Austrian and 
Hungarian-American Societies. Among the 
"honorable vice-chairmen" were listed Edmund 
von Mach, John Devoy, Justices Goff and Co- 
halan (a trinity of Britonophobes), Colquitt of 
Texas, Ex-Congressman Buchanan (of Labor's 
National Peace Council fame), Jeremiah O'Leary 
(a Sinn Feiner, mentioned in official cables from 
Zimmermann to Bernstorff as a good intermedi- 
ary for sabotage), Judge John T. Hylan, Richard 
Bartholdt (a congressman active in the German 
political lobby), and divers officers of the Alli- 
ance. 

The American Truth Society, Inc., the parent 
of the Friends of Peace, was founded in 1912 by 
Jeremiah O'Leary, a Tammany lawyer later in- 
dicted for violation of the Espionage Act, who 
disappeared when his case came up for trial in 
May, 1918; Alphonse Koelble, who conducted the 
German-American Alliance's New York political 
clearing house; Gustav Dopslaff, a German- 



2.50 The German Secret Service in America 

American banker, and others interested in the 
German cause. In 191 5 the Society, whose ex- 
ecutives were well and favorably known to Ger- 
man embassy, began issuing and circulating noisy 
pamphlets, with such captions as "Fair Play for 
Germany," and "A German-American War." 
O'Leary and his friends also conducted a mail 
questionnaire of Congress in an effort to cata- 
logue the convictions of each member on the 
blockade and embargo questions. Their most in- 
sidious campaign was an effort to frighten the 
smaller banks of the country from participating 
in Allied loans, by threats of a German "black- 
list" after the war, to organize a "gold protest" 
to embarrass American banking operations, and 
in general to harass the Administration in its 
international relations. 

So with their newspapers, rumor-mongers, 
lecturers, peace societies, alliances, bunds, vereins, 
lobbyists, war relief workers, motion picture 
operators and syndicates, the Germans wrought 
hard to avert war. For two years they nearly 
succeeded. America was under the narcotic in- 
fluence of generally comfortable neutrality, and a 
comfortable nation likes to wag its head and say 
"there are two sides to every question." But 
whatever these German agents might have accom- 
plished in the public mind — and certainly they 



THE F EI ENDS OF PEACE 

Attend the National Peace Convention, Chicago. Sept. 5 and 6, 1915 



Representing 
i Truth Society 
American Independence Union 
nanity League 
i Women of German Descent 
American Fair Play Society 
Continental League 

German-American Alliance of Greater N. Y. 
German Catholic Federation of New York 
United Irish-American Societies 
United Austrian & Hungarian-A 
Upholsterers' International Union 
and other American Socteti 



Hon. Vice-Chan men 

of 

Convention Committee 

Michael J. Ryan 
Robert E. Ford 
b'dmund von Mach 
John Devoy 
Jeremiah B. Murphy 

llorac- L Brand 
Paul Mueller 
Prof. Win. I. Shepherd 
J.veph Frey 
Judge T. O'Neill Rvan 
Rkna.J Bartholdt 
Jeremiah O'Leaiy 
Judge John J. Rooney 
Ferd Timm 
E. K. Vielor 
Hon. John W. Goff 
Hon. Daniel Cohalan 
Joseph P. McLaughlin 
Judge John T. Hv'lan. 
JudgeJ.HarryTier'Kin 
Pa'rick O'Donnelt 
James T. Clarke 
Hugh H. O'Neill 
Frank Buchanan 
O. B. Colquitt 
Daniel O'Connell 
Col. Wm. Hoyncs 
Stephen E. Folan 
lohn F. Kelly 
Hon. James K. McGuire 
A. L. Morrison 
Miss Annie C. Malia 
Ellen Ryan Jolly 
Thomas O'Brien 
J. B. Murphy 
Thomas H. Malonev 
T. J. Corrlgan 
Marry F. McWhorter 
P. J. Reynolds 
Frank J. Ryan 
J. P. O'Mahony 
Thomas F. Anderson 




National Convention Committee 
JOHN BRiSBEN WALKER. 



ALEXANDER I 1 . MOORE. 



ir«"h. Pa.. Secretary 



Publicity Committee 
RUTLEDCF. RUTHERFORD, Chairm 
HENRY SCHAEFFER. ) 

RICHARD M. McCANN, j Sccreta 
HUGH MASTERSON, ' 



CENi.RAI. OI-'I-'ICES 130 NASSAU 



New York, 



_1915 



Letter-paper of "The Friends of Peace" 



The Public Mind 251 

were sowing their seed in fertile ground — was 
nullified by acts of violence, ruthlessness at sea, 
and impudence in diplomacy. The left hand 
found out what the right hand was about. 



CHAPTER XVI 

HINDU-GERMAN CONSPIRACIES 

The Society for Advancement in India — "Gaekwar 
Scholarships" — Har Dyal and Gadhr — India in 1914 — 
Papen's report — German and Hindu agents sent to the 
Orient — Gupta in Japan— The raid on von Igel's office — 
Chakravarty replaces Gupta — The Annie Larsen and 
Maverick filibuster — Von Igel's memoranda — Har Dyal 
in Berlin — A request for anarchist agents — Ram Chandra 
— Plots against the East and West Indies — Correspond- 
ence between Bernstorff and Berlin, 1916 — Designs on 
China, Japan and Africa — Chakravarty arrested — The 
conspirators indicted. 

As far back as 1907 a plot was hatched in the 
United States to promote sedition and unrest in 
British India. The chief agitators had the ef- 
frontery in the following year to make their head- 
quarters in rooms in the New York Bar Associa- 
tion, and to issue from that address numerous 
circulars asking for money. The late John L. 
Cadwallader, of the distinguished law firm of 
Cadwallader, Wickersham and Taft, was then 
president of the Bar Association, and when he 
learned of the Hindu activities under the roof of 

252 



Hindu-German Conspiracies 253 

the association he swiftly evicted the ringleaders. 
Their organization, chartered in November, 1907, 
was called The Society for the Advancement of 
India. One of its officers was a New York man 
to whom the British have since refused permis- 
sion to visit India. Its members included several 
college professors. 

The presence of several educators in the list 
may be accounted for by the fact that the society 
existed apparently for the purpose of supplying 
American college training to selected Hindu 
youths. Many of them were sent to the United 
States at the expense of the Gaekwar of Baroda, 
one of the richest and most influential of the 
Indian princes; the Gaekwar's own son was a 
student in Harvard College in the years 1908- 
1912. Considerable sums of money were so- 
licited from worthy folk who believed that they 
were furthering the cause of enlightenment in 
India; others who sincerely believed that British 
rule was tyrannical gave frankly to the society to 
help an Indian nationalist movement for home 
rule; others contributed freely for the promotion 
of any and every anti-British propaganda in 
India. The source of the latter funds may be 
suggested by the understanding which long ex- 
isted between the Society for the Advancement 
of India and the Clan-na-Gael, an understanding 



254 The German Secret Service in America 

witnessed by the frequent quotation in the dis- 
affected press of India of articles from the Gae- 
lic-American. Another successful solicitor was 
a contemptible Swami, Vivekahanda, who dis- 
cussed soul matters to New York's gullible-rich to 
his great profit until the police gathered him in 
for a very earthly and material offense. But the 
students were the best material for revolt, 
whether it was to be social or military, and we 
shall see presently how they were made use of. 

The Gaekwar of Baroda came to America in 
the first decade of the new century and expressed 
freely at that time his dislike for the British. At 
the time of the Muzaffarpur bomb outrage, in 
which the wife and daughter of an English of- 
ficial were killed, the police found in the outskirts 
of Calcutta a Hindu who had been educated at an 
American college at the Gaekwar's expense and 
who was at that time conducting a school of in- 
struction in the use of explosives and small arms ; 
he even had considerable quantities of American 
arms and ammunition stored in his house. The 
youths who held "Gaekwar scholarships" in 
America were under the general oversight of a 
professor attached to the American Museum of 
Natural History, and the accumulation of evi- 
dence of the activities of the students finally 
caused his removal. 



Hindu-German Conspiracies 255 

The Society established branches in Chicago, 
Denver, Seattle, and even in St. John, New Bruns- 
wick, and it thrived on the Pacific Coast. With- 
in the purlieus of the University of California, 
there lived in 191 3 one Har Dyal, a graduate of 
St. John's college at Oxford. Har Dyal in that 
year founded a publication called Gadhr, which 
being translated means "mutiny," its main edition 
published in Urdu, other editions published in 
other vernaculars, and appealing not only to 
Hindus, but to Sikhs and Moslems. The publi- 
cation and the chief exponents of its thought 
formed the nucleus of a considerable system of 
anti-British activity. 

Whatever was anti-British found a warm re- 
ception in Berlin. England, in August and Sep- 
tember, 1914, was wrestling heroically with the 
problem of supplying men to the Continent before 
the German drive should reach the Channel. 
Her regulars went, and the training of that gal- 
lant "first hundred thousand" followed. She 
combed her colonies for troops, and having an 
appreciable force of well-trained native soldiers 
under arms in India, she brought them to France, 
and the chronicles of the war are already full of 
stories of the splendid fighting they did, and the 
annoyance they caused to the grey troops of 
Germany. From the German standpoint it was 



256 The German Secret Service in America 

good strategy to incite discontent in India, both 
as tending to remove the Hindu and Sikh regi- 
ments from the fighting zone, and as distracting 
England's attention from the main issue by mak- 
ing her look to the preservation of one of her 
richest treasure lands ; there was the further pos- 
sibility, after the expected elimination of Russia, 
of German conquest of India, and a German 
trade route from the Baltic to the Bay of Bengal, 
through the Himalayan passes. Germany seized 
upon the opportunity. The Amir of Afghanistan 
had trained his army under Turkish officers, 
themselves instructed by Germany through the 
forces of Enver Pasha. The Afghans were told 
that the Kaiser was Mohammedan, and by the 
faith prepared to smite down the wicked un- 
believer, England. The Amir himself spoiled 
Germany's designs among his people, however, 
for upon the outbreak of the war he pledged his 
neutrality to the British Government, and he kept 
his word. 

A report found on the war correspondent 
Archibald and written by Captain von Papen to 
the Foreign Office in the summer of 191 5, outlines 
the German version of the situation in India: 

"That a grave unrest reigns at the present time 
throughout India is shown by the various follow- 
ing reports: 



Hindu-German Conspiracies 257 

"Since October, 1914, there have been various 
local mutinies of Mohammedan native troops, 
one practically succeeding the other. From the 
last reports, it appears that the Hindu troops are 
going to join the mutineers. 

"The Afghan army is ready to attack India. 
The army holds the position on one side of the 
Utak (?) River. The British army is reported 
to hold the other side of the said river. The 
three bridges connecting both sides have been 
blown up by the British. 

"In the garrison located on the Kathiawar 
Peninsula Indian mutineers stormed the arsenal. 
Railroads and wireless station have been de- 
stroyed. The Sikh troops have been removed 
from Beluchistan; only English, Mohammedans 
and Hindu troops remain there. 

"The Twenty-third Cavalry Regiment at 
Lahore revolted, the police station and Town 
House were stormed. The Indian troops in 
Somaliland in Labakoran are trying to effect a 
junction with the Senussi. All Burma is ready to 
revolt. 

"In Calcutta unrest (is reported) with street 
fighting. In Lahore a bank was robbed; every 
week at least two Englishmen killed; in the north- 
western district many Englishmen killed; muni- 



258 The German Secret Service in America 

tions and other material taken, railroads de- 
stroyed ; a relief train was repulsed. 

''Everywhere great unrest. In Benares a bank 
has been stormed. 

"Revolts in Chitral very serious, barracks and 
Government buildings destroyed. The Hurti 
Mardin Brigade, under Gen. Sir E. Wood, has 
been ordered there. Deputy Commissioner of 
Lahore wounded through a bomb in the Anakali 
Bazaar. 

"Mohammedan squadron of the cavalry regi- 
ment in Nowschera deserted over Chang, south- 
west Peshawar. Soldiers threw bombs against 
the family of the Maharajah of Mysore. One 
child and two servants killed, his wife mortally 
wounded. 

"In Ceylon a state of war has been declared." 

In February, 191 5, Jodh Singh, a former 
student of engineering in the United States, was 
in Rio de Janeiro. He was directed by a fellow 
Hindu to call upon the German Consul, and the 
latter gave him $300 and instructions to proceed 
to the German consul in Genoa, Italy, for orders. 
Thence he was forwarded to Berlin, where he at- 
tended the meetings of the newly formed Indian 
Revolutionary Society and absorbed many ideas 
for procedure in America. Supplied with more 
German money he came to New York and was 



Hindu-German Conspiracies 259 

joined by Heramba Lai Gupta, a Hindu who had 
been a student at Columbia, and Albert H. 
Wehde, an art collector. The three went to 
Chicago, and Singh called at once upon Gustav 
Jacobsen, the real estate dealer who will be re- 
called in the Kaltschmidt bomb plots in Detroit. 
Jacobsen assembled a group of German sym- 
pathizers which included Baron Kurt von Reis- 
witz, the consul, George Paul Boehm (mentioned 
in instructions to von Papen to attack the 
Canadian Pacific Railway) and one Sterneck. 
At the conference Jodh Singh, Boehm, Sterneck 
and Gupta were detailed to go to the far East: 
Singh to Siam, to recruit Hindus for revolution- 
ary service, Gupta to China and Japan to secure 
arms ; Boehm to the Himalayas, to attack the ex- 
ploring party of Dr. Frederick A. Cook, the 
notorious, to impersonate Dr. Cook, and thus 
travel about the hills spreading sedition. Wehde, 
with $20,000 of von Reiswitz's money, Boehm and 
Sterneck sailed for Manila, and apparently es- 
caped thence to Java, to meet two officers from 
the Emden, for the three are at this writing fugi- 
tives from justice; Jodh Singh was arrested in 
Bangkok and turned over to the British authori- 
ties. 

In the diary of Captain Grasshof of the Ger- 
man cruiser Geier, interned in Honolulu, appears 



260 The German Secret Service in America 

the following entry, establishing Wehde's call in 
Hawaii, and the complicity of the Consulate there 
in his plans: 

"At the Consulate I met Mr. A. Wehde from 
Chicago, who is on way to Orient on business. 

"One of the Hindoos sent over by Knorr (naval 
attache of German Embassy at Tokio) left for 
Shanghai on the 6th. In Hongkong there are 
500 Hindoos, 200 officers and volunteers, besides 
one torpedo boat and two Japanese cruisers. 

"K-17 (A. V. Kircheisen) was almost captured 
in Kobe. The first officer of the China warned 
him and he immediately got on board again as 
soon as possible. K-17 informed me that the 
Japs have sold back to the Russians all the old 
guns taken from the latter during the Russo- 
Japanese war." 

Reiswitz in June added $20,000 more to the 
fund for revolution in India. Gupta, to whom 
von Papen had paid $16,000 in New York, went 
on to Japan with Dhirendra Sarkar, a fellow con- 
spirator. 

The presence of the two plotters in Japan be- 
came known to the authorities and soon there- 
after to the public. They were shadowed every- 
where, and a complete record was kept of their 
activities ; the newspapers discussed them, and it 
was common property that they gave a banquet 



Hindu-German Conspiracies 261 

on the night of November 9, 19 15, to ten other 
Hindus, to toast a plot for revolution in India. 
On November 28 they were ordered by the chief 
of police to leave Japan before December 2, which 
was tantamount to a delivery into the hands of 
the British, as the only two steamers available 
were leaving for Shanghai and Hong Kong, both 
ports well supplied with British officers. On the 
afternoon of December 1 the two plotters escaped 
in an automobile to the residence of a prominent 
pro-Chinese politician (a friend of Sun Yat Sen) 
and were concealed there, between false walls, 
until May, 19 16, when they stowed away on a 
ship bound for Honolulu. Sarkar returned to 
India, Gupta to America. When the round-up 
came, in 191 7, Jacobsen, Wehde and Boehm were 
each convicted of violation of section 13 of the 
Federal Penal Code, and sentenced to serve five 
years in prison and pay $13,000 fines; Gupta's 
sentence was three years, his fine $200. 

The scene shifts for a moment from the Orient 
to the Occident, and the twenty-fifth floor of the 
building at 60 Wall Street, New York, on the 
morning of April 19, 191 6. There von Papen 
had had his office ; there when he was sent home 
in December, 191 5, he had left in charge a sharp- 
eyed youth named Wolf von Igel as his successor. 
Von Igel, at eleven o'clock, was surveying the re- 



262 The German Secret Service in America 

suit of several hours' work in sorting and arrang- 
ing neat stacks of official papers for shipment to 
the German Embassy at Washington, for he had 
got word that trouble was brewing, and that the 
documents would be safer there. An attendant 
entered. "A man wants to see you, Herr von 
Igel," he announced. "He won't tell his busi- 
ness, except that he says it is important." 

Von Igel was gruffly directing the attendant to 
make the stranger specify his mission when the 
door burst open, and in dashed Joseph A. Baker, 
of the Department of Justice, and Federal Agents 
Storck, Underhill and Grgurevich. 

"I have a warrant for your arrest!" shouted 
Baker. Von Igel jumped for the doors of the 
safe, which stood open. Baker sprang simul- 
taneously for von Igel, and the two went to 
the floor in battle. The German was over- 
powered, and the attendant cowed by a flash of 
revolvers. 

"This means war!" yelled von Igel. "This is 
part of the German Embassy and you've no right 
here." 

"You're under arrest," said Baker. 

"You shoot and there'll be war," said von Igel, 
and made another frantic attempt to close the safe 
doors. A second skirmish ended in von Igel's re- 



Hindu-German Conspiracies 263 

moval to a cell, while the agents took charge of 
the documents. The collection was a rare catch. 
It contained evidence which supplied the missing 
links in numerous chains of suspected German 
guilt, and the matter was at once placed in the 
safe keeping of the Government. 

One letter was dated Berlin, February 4, 1916, 
and addressed to the German Embassy in Wash- 
ington. It reads : 

"In future all Indian affairs are to be exclusively 
handled by the committee to be formed by Dr. Chakra- 
varty. Dhirendra Sarkar, and Heramba Lai Gupta, 
which latter person has meantime been expelled from 
japan," . . . 

(Gupta was at that moment between the walls 
of the Japanese politician's house.) 

. . ."thus cease to be independent representatives of the 
Indian Independence Committee existing here. 

"(Signed) Zimmermann." 

The Embassy on March 21, 19 16, wrote von 
Igel as follows: 

"The Imperial German Consul at Manila writes me : 

" 'Unfortunately the captured Hindus include Gupta, 

who last was active at Tokio. The following have also 

been captured: John Mohammed Aptoler, Rulerham- 

mete, Sharmasler, No-Mar, C. Bandysi, Rassanala. Ap- 



264< The German Secret Service in America 

parently the English are thoroughly informed of all indi- 
vidual movements and the whereabouts at various times 
of the Hindu revolutionists.' 
"Please inform Chakravarty." 

The name "Chakravarty" occurring in these 
two memoranda makes it necessary here to turn 
back the calendar to 191 5, in order to outline an- 
other conspicuous Hindu-German activity. Not 
only were the East Indian students and sympa- 
thetic educators in America prolific in their verbal 
advocacy of revolt in India, but with German as- 
sistance they attempted at least one clearly de- 
fined bit of filibustering, which if it had been 
successful would have supplied the would-be 
mutineers in the Land of Hind with the arms 
they so longed to employ against the British. 

The reader will recall the mention of a large 
quantity of weapons and cartridges which Cap- 
tain Hans Tauscher had stored in a building in 
200 West Houston Street, New York, and which 
he said he had purchased for "speculation." 
The speculation was apparently the project of 
Indian mutiny, which in the eyes of the Indian 
Nationalist party was to equal in grandeur the 
infamous mutiny of 1857. For those arms were 
shipped to San Diego, California, secretly loaded 
aboard the steamer Annie Larsen, and moved to 
sea. The plan provided for their transshipment 



Hindu-German Conspiracies 265 

off the island of Socorro to the hold of the steam- 
ship Maverick, which was to carry them to India. 
The two ships failed to effect a rendezvous, and 
after some wandering the Annie Larsen put in 
at Hoquiam, Washington, where the cargo was at 
once seized by the authorities. The Maverick 
sailed to San Diego, Hilo, Johnson Island, and 
finally to Batavia. 

Count von Bernstorff had sufficient courage, on 
July 2, to inform the Secretary of State "con- 
fidentially that the arms and ammunition . . . 
had been purchased by my government months 
ago through the Krupp agency in New York for 
shipment to German East Africa." On July 22, 
he wrote again, asking that the arms be returned 
as the property of the German Government, and 
offering to give the Department of Justice "such 
further information on the subject as I may 
have" if they cared to push an examination of 
the cargo. On October 5 he threw all responsi- 
bility for the movements of the Maverick upon 
Captain Fred Jebsen, her skipper — by this time a 
fugitive from justice — and stating "the German 
Government did not make the shipment, and 
knows nothing of the details of how they were 
shipped" — which was a rather shabby way of dis- 
crediting his subordinates. 

It developed later that the arms were purchased 



266 The German Secret Service in America 

— sixteen carloads of them — by Henry Muck, 
Tauscher's manager, for $300,000, made payable 
by von Papen through G. Amsinck & Co. to 
Tauscher. A part of the shipment was sent to 
San Diego; the balance was to have gone to India 
via Java and China, but never left on acount of 
the protests of the British Consul. Instead, a 
number of machine guns and 1,500,000 rounds 
of ammunition were sold to a San Francisco 
broker who was acting as agent for Adolphi Stahl, 
financial agent in the United States for the Re- 
public of Guatemala. When Zimmermann cabled 
to von Bernstorff on April 30, 191 6 (through 
Count von Luxburg in Buenos Aires), "Please 
wire whether von Igel's report on March 27, 
Journal A, No. 257, has been seized, and warn 
Chakravarty," he had grave concern over the be- 
trayal of German influences in the Hindu con- 
spiracies. This was fully justified when a cor- 
respondence notebook of von Igel's disclosed, 
among other entries, the following transactions : 

August 12, 191 5 — Captain Herman Othmer in- 
closed documents about the Annie Larsen and von 
Igel forwarded charter to Consul at San Fran- 
cisco. 

September 2 — The embassy forwarded papers 
from San Francisco about the Annie Larsen and 
von Igel returned them. 



Hindu-German Conspiracies 267 

September 7 — The embassy sent a telegram 
from San Francisco about the Maverick. 

September 9 — The consulate, San Francisco, 
sent a letter for information and von Igel replied 
with a telegram about Maverick repairs. 

September 9, 19 15 — The Embassy sent a letter 
from the consulate at San Francisco about ship- 
ment and von Igel replied to embassy that the 
proposals were impracticable. 

October 1 — The embassy sent a cipher message 
to Berlin about the Maverick. 

October 9 — The Consulate, San Francisco, sent 
a letter about the Maverick negotiations. 

October 20, 191 5 — Von Igel received a report 
about a shipment of arms from Manila. 

January 2J, 1916 — The embassy forwarded 
copies of telegrams to San Francisco in the matter 
of the Maverick. 

August 28 — The Consulate, Manila, sent a 
cipher letter about the transport of arms. 

November 8, 191 5 — AAA 100 sent a report 
from or concerning Ispahan arms. 

The peaceful Har Dyal, Oxford graduate, 
lecturer at Leland Stanford, denizen of the Uni- 
versity of California, and editor of Gadhr, had 
laid down the following rules for the guidance of 
members of the group of revolutionaries which he 
headed: each candidate for membership must 



268 The German Secret Service in America 

undergo a six months' probationary period before 
his admission; any member who exposed the 
secrets of the organization should suffer death; 
members wishing to marry could do so without 
any ceremony, as they were above the law. Un- 
der such amiable rules of conduct he accumulated 
a number of followers of the faith, and more 
swarmed to the tinkle of German money. In 
August, 19 14, the "first expeditionary force" of 
revolutionists set sail for India in the Korea. A 
few months later, Har Dyal left for Berlin, where 
he organized the Indian Revolutionary Society, 
leaving Ram Chandra as his successor to edit 
Gadhr in Berkeley. 

The avowed object of this society was to estab- 
lish a Republican government in India with the 
help of Germany. They held regular meetings 
attended by German officials and civilians who 
knew India, among them former teachers in In- 
dia. At these meetings the Germans were ad- 
vised as to the line of conduct to be adopted. 
The deliberations were of a secret nature. Har 
Dyal and Chattopadhay had considerable influ- 
ence with the German Government and were the 
only two Indians privileged to take part in the 
deliberations of the German Foreign Office. 

Besides these societies there were in Berlin 



Hindu-German Conspiracies 269 

two other associations known as the Persian and 
Turkish societies. The object of the first named 
was to free Persia from European influences in 
general, and create ill feeling against the British 
in particular, and to assist the natives to form a 
republic. The object of the Turkish society was 
practically the same. They established an 
Oriental translating bureau which translated 
German news and other literature selected by the 
Indian Revolutionary Society into various 
Oriental languages and distributed the transla- 
tions among the Hindu prisoners of war. 

Har Dyal continued in close touch with Ameri- 
can affairs. On October 20 and 26, 19 15, he 
wrote to Alexander Berkman, a notorious 
anarchist imprisoned in 19 18 for violation of the 
draft law, urging Berkman to send to Germany 
through Holland comrades who would be valuable 
in Indian propaganda, and asking for letters of 
introduction "from Emma or yourself' (Emma 
Goldman) to important anarchists in Europe; 
these communications are unimportant except as 
they betray the Prussian policy of making an all} 7 
of anarchy, although anarchy as a social factor 
is the force from which Germany has most to 
fear. "Perhaps you can find them," wrote Dyal, 
"in New York or at Paterson. They should be 



270 The German Secret Service in America 

real fighters, I. W. W.'s or anarchists. Our 
Indian party will make all the necessary arrange- 
ments." 

Ram Chandra went on with the work until he 
was stopped by the Foreign Office. He printed 
anti-Britannic pamphlets quoting Bryan for cir- 
culation in India ; he printed and delivered to 
Lieutenant von Brincken at the German Consul- 
ate in San Francisco some 5,000 leaflets, which 
were to be shipped to Germany and dropped by 
the Boche aviators over the Hindu lines in 
France: the handbills read, "Do not fight with 
the Germans. They are our friends. Lay down 
your arms and run to the Germans." Chandra 
and his crew supplied the Maverick with quan- 
tities of literature, but most of it was burned 
when the Hindu agents aboard feared that there 
were British warships near Socorro Island. In 
the same group were G. B. Lai and Taraknath 
Das, two former students at the University of 
California, the latter a protege of a German pro- 
fessor there himself engaged in propaganda work. 

Throughout the fall of 191 5 the Hindus in 
America awaited word of Gupta's success in 
Japan. They heard nothing but news of his dis- 
appearance. Accordingly in December, Dr. 
Chakravarty, a frail little Hindu of light choco- 



Hindu-German Conspiracies 271 

late complexion, sailed from Hoboken for Ger- 
many, traveling as a Persian merchant, on a false 
passport. He made a good impression on the 
Foreign Office, as may be judged by the follow- 
ing letter, dated January 21, 1916, addressed to 
L. Sachse, Rotterdam: 

"Dr. Chakravarty will return to the United States and 
form a working committee of only five members, one of 
whom should be himself and another, Ram Chandra. In 
addition to sending more Indians home the new American 
committee will undertake the following: 

"1 — An agent will be sent to the West India islands, 
where there are nearly 100,000 Indians, and will organize 
the sending home of as many as possible. 

"They have not yet been approached by us and there are 
no such difficulties in the way of their going to India as 
are encountered by our countrymen from the United 
States. 

"2 — An agent will be sent to British Guiana with the 
same object. 

"3 — A very reliable man will be sent to Java and 
Sumatra. 

"4 — It is proposed to have pamphlets printed and 
circulated in and from America. The literature will be 
printed secretly and propaganda will be carried on with 
great vigor. 

"5 — An effort will be made to carry out the plan of the 
secret Oriental mission to Japan. Dr. Chakravarty is in a 
position to get letters of introduction to important persons 
in Japan, as well as a safe-conduct for himself and other 
members of mission." 



272 The German Secret Service in America 

After conferring with Dyal, Zimmermann, and 
Undersecretary Wesendonk of the Foreign Of- 
fice, he was given money and sent back to the 
United States, arriving in February, 191 6. He 
at once sent H. A. Chen to China to purchase 
arms and ship them to India. He then reported 
to Wolf von Igel, who paid him $40,000 for the 
purchase of a house in 120th Street and one in 
17th Street. There he held forth for more than 
a year, working in conjunction with von Igel, and 
the latter with the Embassy in Washington. His 
activities may be indicated, and the complicity of 
the German Government again established, in the 
following communications : 

From von Igel to von Bernstorff 

"New York, April 7, 1916 — A report has been received 
here that Dr. Chakravarty was taken Monday, the 3d of 
April, to the Providence Hospital with concussion of the 
brain in consequence of an automobile accident. His 
convalescence is making good progress. A certain Ernest 
J. Euphrat has been here and he came from the Foreign 
Office and had orders with respect to the India propa- 
ganda. He could not identify himself, but made a very 
good impression. He told us Herr von Wesendonk told 
him to say that Ram Chandra's activity in San Francisco 
was not satisfactory. This person should for the time 
being suspend his propaganda activities." 

"In re No. 303 : Euphrat was sent by me to India in 
October of last year, and is so far as known here reliable. 



Hindu-German Conspiracies 273 

He was, indeed, recommended at the time by Marcus 
Braun. Please intimate to him cautiously that he should 
not speak too much about his orders he received in Berlin. 
San Francisco is being informed." 
"For Prince Hatzfeld." 

From New York to von Bemstorff 

"New York, April 15, 1916 — Mr. E. J. Euphrat has 
asked that the inclosed documents be forwarded to his 
excellency in a safe way. Ke asks for a reply as quickly 
as possible, because if he does not receive the desired al- 
lowance he will have to change the plans for his journey. 

"(Signed) K. N. St." 

To H. Eisenhuth, Copenhagen, from New York, and 
unsigned 

"May 2, 1916. We have also organized a Pan-Asiatic 
League, so that some of our members can travel without 
arousing any suspicion. Also everything has been ar- 
ranged for the 'mission to Japan.' Please let me know 
when your men can come, so that we can approach the 
party more definitely. I had talks with one of the direc- 
tors of the Yamato Shimbun of Tokio and Chinvai 
Dempo of Kyoto. It would not be necessary to buy off 
these papers, as they understand it is to mutual interest. 
But they ask for certain considerations to help their 
financial status. They are also decided to attack Anglo- 
Japanese treaty as antagonistic to national interest. To 
carry on work it will be necessary to place at the dis- 
posal of the committee here $25,000." 



274 The German Secret Service in America 

Cablegram from Zimmermann, Berlin, to von Bernstorff, 
via von Luxburg, Buenos Aires 

"To Bernstorff, May 19, 1916: Berlin telegraphs No. 
28 of May 19. Answer to telegram 23. Your excel- 
lency is empowered to give the Indians $20,000. No. 29 
of May 19 in continuation of telegram No. 16. Please, in 
making direct payments to Tarak Nath Das, avoid 
receipts. Das will receipt own payment through a third 
party as Edward Schuster. 

"(Signed) Zimmermann." 

Zimmermann to Peking, transmitted by Luxburg, to 
Bernstorff for Peking legation 

"The confidential agent of the Nationalists here, the 
Indian, Tarak Nath Das, an American citizen, is leaving 
for Peking by the Siberian Railway. Please give him up 
to 10,000 marks. Das will arrange the rest. 

"Zimmermann." 

"Ambassador at Washington: Please advise Chakra- 
varty. 

"Luxburg." 

From Bernstorff, mailed at Mt. Vernon, N. Y ., to Z. N. G. 
Olivers, a German agent in Amsterdam 

"June 16, 1916 — Referring to my letter A275 of June 8, 
Chakravarty reports: Organization has been almost 
completed, and many of our old members are active and 
free. Only they are afraid if arms are not available soon 
there may be premature uprising in Madras and the 
Punjab as well as in Bengal. The work in Japan is going 
unusually well, more than our expectations." 



Hindu-German Conspiracies 275 

From Berlin to Chakravarty 

"July 13, 1916 — In organizing work in the United 
States and outside, remember our primary object is to 
produce revolutions at home during this war. Trinidad, 
British Guiana and East Africa, including Zanzibar, 
should be particularly tapped for men. 

"We wired your name to Francis E. M. Hussain, 
Bachelor of Arts, Barr. at Law, Port of Spain, Trinidad. 
Through messenger communicate full programme desired 
in Trinidad to him, and mention the name 'Binniechatto.' 
He can be trusted. If, after some secret work, you think 
revolution can be organized in island itself, then we may 
try to smuggle arms, and our men will seize Government 
and set up independent Hindustani Republic. Do not let 
such plan be carried out if our prospects for work at home 
are likely to be ruined." 

A report from Chakravarty , written July 26, 1916 

"I am going to Vancouver next week to see Bhai Bal- 
want Singh and Nano Singh Sihra, who have asked me 
to go there to arrange definite plan of action for group 
of workers there, and then to San Francisco to induce 
Ram Chandra to plan our committee here, and to include 
him and his nominees in the said committee, so that our 
work does not suffer in the East by placing enemies on 
their guard and right track by his thoughtless, enthusiastic 
writings. . . . Gupta is back in New York and has seen 
me, but has not submitted any report. We need $15,000 
more for the next six months to carry out the new plan 
and to continue the previous work undertaken." 



276 The German Secret Service in America 

From von Bernstorff, at Rye, N. Y ., to Olifiers, trans- 
mitting Chakravarty's report 

"August 5, 1916 — Our organization has been well per- 
fected in the West Indies and Houssain has been ap- 
proached.' We have also enlisted the sympathy of the 
Gongoles party, a strong fighting body of colored people, 
who have ramifications all over Central America, includ- 
ing British Guiana and Guatemala. Arms can be easily 
smuggled there and if we can get some of the German 
officers in this country to go there and lead them there 
is every possibility that we can hold quite a while. But 
the question is — ask the Foreign Secretary whether it is 
desirable, for it might simply create a sensation and noth- 
ing more. As soon as we hold there the Governmental 
power the island would be isolated by the British navy, 
and the attitude of the United States is uncertain, and 
we may be compelled to surrender sooner or later ; but if 
it serves any purpose either as a blind or otherwise, and 
after due consideration of its advantages and disadvan- 
tages, wire at once the authorities here to give us a few 
officers, as we need them badly, and other help necessary 
to carry out the plan, and it can be done without much 
difficulty. I believe if a sensation is desired something 
also can be done in London, at least should be tried. If 
we can get a few men from the Pacific Coast we can send 
them easily as a crew with a Dutch passport. 

"We are sending arms in small quantities through 
Chinese coolies over the border, in Burmah, but in big 
quantities we do not find possibility. However, we are 
on the lookout. We have been trying our best with a 
Japanese firm who have a business affiliation in Calcutta, 



Hindu-German Conspiracies 277 

whether they will undertake to transmit some arms 
through their goods. 

"To complete the chain we are sending Mr. Chandra 
to London as a medical student in the university, and he 
will send men and other informations to you via Switzer- 
land. We are also sending a few Chinese students to 
China to help us in the work, and if you want it can also 
be arranged they give you a personal report through 
Russia and Sweden. 

"We need $15,000 more, as I return from the Pacific 
Coast, to carry out these plans, excepting that of Trinidad 
operations, which, if you approve, wire at once the mili- 
tary agent here to arrange to buy and ship arms to us, 
before the enemy can be on guard." 

To H. Eisenhnth, Copenhagen, in cipher 

"September 5, 1916 — Arms can no more be safely sent 
to India through Pacific, except through Japanese mer- 
chandise or through China merchants, shipped to Chinese 
ports and then to our border. Responsible men are will- 
ing to take the risk and they are willing to send their 
confidential agents to Turaulleur." 

Chakravarty to Berlin, Foreign Office 

"September 5, 191(5 — Li Yuan Hung is now President 
of China. He was formerly the southern revolutionary 
leader. W. T. Wang was then his private secretary. He 
is now in America and starting for China. He says Li 
Yuan Hung is in sympathy with the Indian revolution and 
would like English power weakened. Some of the 
prominent people are quite eager to help India directly, 



278 The German Secret Service in America 

and Germany indirectly, without exposing themselves to 
any great risk, on three conditions : 

"The first — Germany to make a secret treaty with 
China, that in case China is attacked by any power or 
powers, Germany will give her military aid. It will be 
obligatory for five years after the discontinuance of the 
present war and there will be an understanding that China 
shall get one-tenth of all arms and ammunition she will 
receive for and deliver to the Indian revolutionaries and 
the Indian border. 

"In return, China shall prohibit the delivery of arms 
and ammunition in the name of the Chinese Government 
and from China through private sailing boats and by 
coolies to any nearby point or any border place as directed. 
She will help Indian revolutionaries as she can, secretly 
and in accord with her own safety. 

"But this is to be regarded as a feeler through a third 
party, and, if it is acceptable to the German Government, 
then they will send one of their trusted representatives to 
Berlin to discuss the details and plan of operations, and 
if it is settled, then negotiations should take place officially 
and papers signed through the embassies in Berlin and 
Peking. They want to know the attitude of the German 
Foreign Office as soon as possible so that they can set 
the ball rolling for necessary arrangements." 

Von Bernstorff to Zimmermann 

"October 13, 1916 — Chakravarty's reply is not sent; too 
long. Require at end of October a further $15,000. Ac- 
cording to news which has arrived here Okechi has not 
received the $2000 and in the meantime left Copenhagen. 



Hindu-German Conspiracies 279 

Please withhold payment until Polish National Committee 
provides therefor. 

"Bernstorff." 

To Olifiers, Amsterdam, postmarked Washington 

"November 21, 191 6 — Rabindranath Tagore has come 
at our suggestion and saw Count Okuma, Baron Shimpei 
Goto, Masaburo Suzuki, Marquis Yamanouchi, Count 
Terauchi and others; Terauchi is favorable and others 
are sympathetic. Rash Behari Bose is still there to see 
whether they can be persuaded to do something positive 
for our cause. S. Sekunna and G. Marsushita are doing 
their best. Yamatashimbun is strongly advocating our 
cause. D. Pal has not come. Benoy Sarkar is still in 
China. Lala is willing to go, but this passage could not 
be arranged. As soon as Tilak arrives he will be ap- 
proached. Bapat is still free and writes that he has been 
trying his best, but for want of arms they have not been 
able to do anything. Received a note from Abdul Kadir 
and Shamshar Singh from Termes-Buchare that they are 
proceeding on slowly to their destination. Barkatullah 
is in Kabul ; well received, lacks funds. Mintironakaono 
is here. Isam Uhiroi is in Pekin. Tarak has safely 
reached there. Our publication work is going on well. 
We have brought out seven pamphlets and one in the 
press. We are waiting for definite instructions as to the 
work in Trinidad and Damrara. 

"Wu Ting Fang has been now made the Foreign 
Minister. He has always been sympathetic with our 
cause. But the influence of Sun Yat Sen still persists in 
opposing us in that direction." 



280 The German Secret Service in America 

Zimmermann to Bemstorff 

"December 20, 19 16 — According to Chakravarty, the 
Indians were paid up to September 30 $30,000. Total 
credit for Indians, $65,000. 

"Zimmermann." 

Zimmermann to Bemstorff 

"January 4, 1917 — very secret. The Japanese, Hideo 
Nakao, is traveling to America with important instruc- 
tions from the Indian Committee. He is to deal exclu- 
sively with Chakravarty. Please, after consultation with 
Chakravarty, inform Imperial Minister at Peking and the 
Imperial Consulate at Shanghai that they are to send in 
Nakao's reports regularly. I advise giving Nakao in in- 
stallments up to fifty thousand dollars in all for the exe- 
cution of his plans in America and Eastern Asia. Deci- 
sion as to the utility of the separate payments is left to 
your excellency and the Imperial Legation at Peking. 
Despatch follows. 

"(Signed) Zimmermann." 

On March 7, 1917, Guy Scull, deputy police 
commissioner in New York, with eight detectives, 
called at 364 West 120th Street, found Dr. Cha- 
kravarty clad in a loin cloth, and arrested him on 
a charge of setting afoot a military enterprise 
against the Emperor of India. With Sekunna, 
a German who had been writing tracts for him, 
he was later transferred to San Francisco to stand 
trial. The typewriter in the 120th Street house, 
whose characteristics — all typewriters are as in- 



Hindu-German Conspiracies 281 

dividual and as identifiable as finger-prints — had 
betrayed the conspirators, lay idle for many 
months, but as late as March 18, 19 18, a Hindu, 
Sailandra Nath Ghose, who had collaborated with 
Taraknath Das in writing a propaganda work 
called "The Isolation of Japan in world politics," 
was arrested there in company with a German 
woman, Agnes Smedley. The two were accused 
of violating the espionage act by representing 
themselves to be diplomatic agents of the Indian 
Nationalist Party, and of having sent an appeal 
for aid in the establishment of a democratic fed- 
erated republic in India to the Brazilian Embassy 
in Washington, to Leon Trotzky in Russia, and to 
the Governments of Panama, Paraguay, Chile 
and other neutral nations. 

In the course of the years 191 6 and 191 7 the 
Government built up an unusually exhaustive and 
troublesome case for nearly one hundred defend- 
ants, including the personnel of the San Fran- 
cisco consulate, the German consul at Honolulu 
(who had supplied the Maverick in Hilo Har- 
bor 1 ), a large group of Hindu students, a smaller 
group of war brokers, and numerous lesser in- 
termediaries. Their trial was one of the most 
Cumbersome and interesting cases ever heard in 

^■The Maverick was lost in a typhoon off the Philippines in 
August, 1917. 



282 The German Secret Service in America 

an American court. It began on November 19, 

191 7, in San Francisco, with Judge Van Fleet on 
the bench. Witness after witness recited his 
story of adventure, each stranger than the last, 
and all stranger than fiction. Lieutenant von 
Brincken, one of the San Francisco consulate, 
pleaded guilty within a few weeks; his sentence 
was long deferred by the prosecution on ac- 
count, presumabably, of evidence which he sup- 
plied the Government. George Rodiek, the Ger- 
man consul in Flonolulu, followed suit and was 
fined heavily; Jodh Singh turned state's evidence 
and presently his mind became diseased and he 
was committed to an asylum; the procedure 
was interrupted from time to time with wran- 
gles among the defendants, and on one occa- 
sion Franz Bopp, the San Francisco consul, 
shouted to one of his fellows, "You are spoiling 
the whole case!" When the Government, 
through United States Attorney Preston, intro- 
duced evidence from the Department of State, 
the Hindus attempted to subpoena Secretary Lans- 
ing; when Bryan's pacifist tracts were introduced 
the defendants sought Bryan. On April 18, 

1918, Chakravarty confessed, to the irritation of 
the other defendants. The climax in melodrama 
occurred on the afternoon of April 23, 19 18, 
when, with the case all but concluded, Ram Singh 



Hindu-German Conspiracies 283 

shot and killed Ram Chandra in the courtroom. 
A moment later Ram Singh lay dead, his neck 
broken by a bullet fired over the heads of the at- 
torneys by United States Marshal Holohan. 
That afternoon Judge Van Fleet delivered his 
charge to the jury; that night a verdict of guilty 
was returned against twenty-nine of the thirty- 
two defendants who had not been dismissed as 
the trial proceeded. 

Judge Van Fleet, on April 30, 1918, pronounced 
the following sentences : 

Franz Bopp, German consul in San Francisco, 
two years in the penitentiary and $10,000 fine; 
F. H. von Schack, vice-consul, the same punish- 
ment; Lieutenant von Brincken, military attache 
of the consulate, two years' imprisonment with- 
out fine; Walter Sauerbeck, lieutenant comman- 
der in the German navy, an officer of the Geier in- 
terned in Honolulu, one year's imprisonment and 
$2,000 fine; Charles Lattendorf, von Brincken's 
secretary, one year in jail; Edwin Deinat, mas- 
ter of the German ship Holsatia, interned in 
Honolulu, a term of ten months in jail and a fine 
of $1,500; Heinrich Felbo, master of the German 
ship Ahlers, interned in Hilo, Hawaii, six months 
in jail and a fine of $1,000. These men may be 
described as the loyal German group. 

Robert Capelle, agent in San Francisco of the 



284 The German Secret Service in America 

North German Lloyd line, fifteen months' impris- 
onment and a fine of $7,500; Harry J. Hart, a 
San Francisco shipping man, six months in iail 
and a fine of $5,000; Joseph Bley of the firm of 
C. D. Bunker & Co., customs brokers, fifteen 
months in prison and a fine of $5,000; Moritz 
Stack von Goltzheim, a real estate and insurance 
broker, six months in jail and $1,000 fine; Louis 
T. Hengstler, an admiralty lawyer and professor 
in the University of California and in Hastings 
Law College, a fine of $5,000; Bernard Manning, 
a real estate, insurance and employment agent in 
San Diego, nine months in jail and a fine of 
$1,000; and J. Clyde Hizar, a former city attor- 
ney in Coronado and assistant paymaster in the 
United States Navy, one year's imprisonment and 
a fine of $5,000. These gentlemen constituted 
the so-called "shipping group" which was inti- 
mately concerned with the affairs of the Annie 
Lars en and the Maverick. 

Dr. Chakravarty, who had been delegated by 
no less a personage than Zimmermann of Berlin 
to handle all Indian intrigue in America, received 
a crushing sentence of sixty days in jail and a 
fine of $5,000. Bhagwan Singh, the "poet of the 
revolution," was sentenced to eighteen months in 
the penitentiary; Taraknath Das, the author and 
lecturer, to twenty-two months' imprisonment; 




Copyright, International Film Se 



Dr. Chakravarty (on the right) , the accredited agent of Ger- 
many in the Hindu-German intrigues in America. With 
him is Ernest Sekunna, also a German agent, 
arrested with Chakravarty 



Hindu-German Conspiracies 285 

Gobind Behari Lai, the University of California 
student, to ten months in jail. The smaller fry 
of the University of Calif omia-Ghadr group were 
disposed of as follows: Nandekar to three 
months in jail, Ghoda Ram to eleven months, 
Sarkar, who had been in Japan with Gupta, to 
four months, Munshi Ram (of the Ghadr staff) 
to sixty days, Imam Din to four months, Nerajan 
Das to six months, Singh Hindi to nine months, 
Santokh Singh to twenty-one months in the peni- 
tentiary, Gopalm Singh to one year and a day, and 
Nidhan Singh to four months. 

Those defendants who remained had not been 
allowed at large on bail, thanks to the vigilance of 
Preston. Yet in spite of all precautions, the pro- 
ceedings frequently threatened to get out of con- 
trol. The United States had been at war for a 
year; the Federal Court was trying both alien 
enemies of military status and alien enemies who 
had engaged in and stood convicted of conspiracy, 
as well as conspirators against the rule of Britain 
in India who had revolution quite definitely in 
mind. Great Britain, for six months before the 
trial began, had been our ally and, in spirit at 
least, a traitor to Great Britain was a traitor to 
the United States. In spirit, but not in the letter 
of the law: the worst punishment which any ex- 
isting statutes could impose on any single defend- 



286 The German Secret Service in America 

ant found wholly and completely guilty of the 
charge was two years' imprisonment and a fine of 
$10,000. For such conviction, and for such pun- 
ishment of the United States' military enemies, 
the prosecution clambered about through the 
tangle of civil procedure ; we had been six months 
at war and laws had not been supplied to facilitate 
the swift justice due such enemies, nor have laws 
been supplied as this is written. More than 
eighty "court days" were consumed, the short- 
hand reporting alone cost more than $35,000. A 
court commissioner released four important wit- 
nesses "for want of evidence." (One of them 
was indicted in New York and the commissioner 
was himself dismissed. ) Gupta, arrested in New 
York, was released on bail and swiftly fled across 
the Mexican border to continue his propaganda. 
Trying as the case was to all who were con- 
cerned in it, expeditiously as it was handled by 
the authorities, and informative as it proved to 
be, it was monumental in its confession that civil 
courts cannot act with the warning vigor and 
speed made necessary by war conditions. 

The evidence introduced pointed clearly to the 
conclusion that the German-Hindu plot, complex 
as it is to us as critics, was unfruitful even to 
Berlin. Perhaps its very breadth made it awk- 
ward to manage. Nearly four years of war 



Hindu-German Conspiracies 287 

passed, and there was no mutiny in India. The 
stewards of the Indian domain knew anxious mo- 
ments, but they found some solace in the realiza- 
tion that half way around the world, in the United 
States, there was a pair of eyes to watch every 
pair of mischievous hands, and that the conspir- 
acy directed against the Orient could not take 
effect while those eyes were open. 

It requires no special gift of prophecy to pre- 
dict that secret conspiracies will continue unless 
those eyes are more vigilant than ever. The 
United States Attorney announced as the con- 
spirators were being sentenced that he felt that 
the court might well instruct their dark associates 
to "cut out their propaganda," and that their 
Gahdr presses were even then turning out "bar- 
rels and bales of seditious literature." To this 
Judge Van Fleet gravely responded : 

"The people are going to take the law into their 
own hands, as much as we regret it. The citi- 
zens of this country are going to suppress mani- 
festations hostile to our allies." 



CHAPTER XVII 

MEXICO, IRELAND, AND BOLO 

Huerta arrives in New York — The restoration plot — 
German intrigue in Central America — The Zimmermann 
note — Sinn Fein — Sir Roger Casement and the Easter 
Rebellion — Bolo Pacha in America and France — A 
warning. 

Germany learned during President Roosevelt's 
administration that the Monroe Doctrine was not 
to be tampered with. The United States stood 
squarely upon a policy of "hands off Latin Amer- 
ica." But both commercial and diplomatic Ger- 
many were attracted by the bright colors of the 
somewhat kaleidoscopic political condition of the 
Central and South American nations. In po- 
litical confusion, Mexico, at the outbreak of war, 
led all the rest. This suited Germany's pur- 
pose perfectly — provided that at least one fac- 
tion in Mexico might be susceptible to her influ- 
ence. The first three years of war proved to 
the satisfaction of the most skeptical that Mexi- 
can unrest would trouble the United States, and 

288 



Mexico, Ireland, and Bolo 289 

it was upon this theory that Germany long before 
1914 baited her hook for Mexico. 

Propagandists in our neighbor republic added 
fuel to the already brisk flame of native hostility 
to the Yankee. A considerable German commer- 
cial colony grew up, assimilated the language and 
customs of Mexico, and bade fair to be a strong 
competitor in the development of the huge natural 
resources waiting there for foreign capital. By 
1914 Germany had evidently expected to be in a 
position sufficiently strong to enlist Mexico on 
her side in case the United States gave trouble. 
The reader will recall that Admiral von Hintze 
in the summer of 19 14 had recommended Captain 
von Papen for a decoration for having organized 
a fair military unit of the Germans in Mexico. 
That same summer, however, saw Mexico with 
troubles of her own, and German efforts against 
the United States through Mexico had to be post- 
poned. 

Early in 1914 General Huerta, an unscrupu- 
lous, powerful and dissolute factionist, had ex- 
ecuted a coup d'etat which placed him in the 
president's chair. He at once advertised for 
bids. The United States had no intention of pro- 
tecting him, and in order to stop at its source any 
trouble which might prove too attractive to a for- 
eign power, placed an embargo upon the shipment 



290 The German Secret Service in America 

of American arms into Mexico. The American 
fleet was despatched to Vera Cruz to see that the 
order was carried out. The steamship Ypiranga, 
with a cargo of arms, succeeded in eluding the 
fleet, and under orders from the German admiral, 
and the direction of Karl Heynen, the arms were 
landed. 

Huerta had promised the presidency to Felix 
Diaz. In order to get him out of the way he sent 
Diaz to negotiate a Japanese understanding. 
The United States gently diverted Sefior Diaz 
from his mission. Huerta began to lose the grip 
he held; three other factionists, Villa, Carranza 
and Zapata, each at the head of an army, were 
aiming at his head, and shortly before the world 
went to war the old rogue fled to Barcelona. 

There Rintelen negotiated with him in Feb- 
ruary, 191 5, and out of their conferences grew a 
plan to restore him to the Mexican presidency. 
This plan would have meant war between Mexico 
and the United States, which was precisely what 
von Rintelen and his Wilhelmstrasse friends de- 
sired: American forces would have to be mobil- 
ized at the Rio Grande, and American munitions, 
destined for the Allies, would have to be com- 
mandeered and diverted to Mexico. 

The aged general arrived in New York in 
April, and was interviewed and photographed. 



Mexico, Ireland, and Bolo 291 

He told the public through the newspapers that 
he proposed to acquire an estate on Long Island 
and the public considered it not inauspicious that 
the veteran warrior should have come to pass the 
remainder of his stormy life in the world's most 
peaceful country. Fortunately for the peace of 
the United States not every one believed him. 

Within a week of his arrival von Rintelen 
slipped into New York. He placed in the 
Havana branch of the Deutsches Bank and in 
banks in Mexico City some $800,000 to Huerta's 
credit, and within a short time the political jack- 
als who lived on foreign subsidy began to prick 
up their ears. Von Papen and Boy-Ed had made 
trips to the Mexican border, arranging through 
their consular agents in the Mexican towns 
across the river the mobilization of Germans in 
Mexico, the storing of supplies and ammunition, 
and the deposit of funds in banks at Brownsville, 
El Paso, San Antonio and Douglas. Not all 
Mexicans in the United States were Huertistas, 
however, and one Raphael Nieto, Assistant-Secre- 
tary of Finance to Carranza, was quite as eager 
to follow Huerta's activities as were the agents 
of the United States. The Carranzistas joined 
forces with the Secret Service and found out that 
the plot had already begun to develop. 

During the month of May, Huerta frequently 



292 The German Secret Service in America 

met a member of the German Embassy at the 
Hotel McAlpin. Von Rintelen was clever 
enough not to negotiate in person, but he dined 
frequently with the Embassy member. Much of 
what had occurred at these conferences in the 
McAlpin was known to government agents, who 
had been concealed where they could take notes 
on the conversation. On June i, 191 5, General 
Huerta, with Jose Ratner, his "financial adviser," 
held a conference in the Holland House with a 
former Huertista cabinet minister, a son of the 
Mexican general, Angeles, and certain other per- 
sonages who purposed to take part in the revolu- 
tion for the sake of this world. One of the men 
present was a Carranza spy, and through him it 
became known that Huerta outlined that he had 
ten millions of dollars for immediate use in a plot 
to restore him to his former position, twice that 
sum in reserve, and that more would be forthcom- 
ing if necessary. Arms and ammunition, he said, 
would be shipped into Mexico secretly, supplies 
would be accumulated at certain border towns, 
and envoys had already been sent to incite deser- 
tion from the armies of Carranza and Villa. 

Rintelen did not know that the Carranzistas 
had sold out to the authorities. Rintelen had al- 
ready purchased some $3,000,000 worth of arms 
and cartridges, and he was prepared to see the en- 



Mexico, Ireland, and Bolo 293 

terprise to a successful conclusion. Incidentally 
he was quietly supplying six other Mexican fac- 
tions with funds in case Huerta's measure of suc- 
cess should prove too intoxicating. 

Because he was a figure of considerable inter- 
national notoriety and indisputable news inter- 
est, the press had been following Huerta's move- 
ments with strict attention. Affairs at the 
border were not reassuring and there persisted 
the feeling that Huerta in the United States held 
promise of Huerta once more in Mexico. In 
July, his agent, Ratner, issued the following 
frank though apparently ingenious statement: 

"General Huerta and those of us associated 
with him are confident that the whole Mexican 
situation will be cleared up within ninety days. 
We believe that to rule the country is a one-man 
job. And in that time we expect that one man 
to come forward and unite the country. General 
Huerta does not care to indicate the man he has 
in mind, but he is from our viewpoint a true pa- 
triot, and naturally that excludes both Carranza 
and Villa. 

"General Huerta may or may not return to 
Mexico some day, and may or may not hold office 
there again. At present he is giving himself up 
wholly to an agreeable and home life in this city 
(New York)." 



294 The German Secret Service in America 

Whether or not General Huerta was to "return 
to Mexico some day" depended upon the temper 
of the United States. He knew that when he 
authorized the statement. He did not know — or 
else he was incredibly bold — that the Government 
was in possession of the whole story, and that 
orders had been issued from the highest source in 
the country not to let him return. One day in the 
late summer he slipped away, ostensibly to visit 
the San Francisco Exposition. Government 
agents shadowed him and let him make his own 
pace. He took the southern route, and traveled 
so quietly that his flight was not publicly marked 
until he had passed through Kansas City. As he 
approached the border he became as eager as a 
boy at the prospect of his 'return from Elba'; 
then, as he was almost in sight of the soil from 
which he had been exiled, he was arrested on a 
technical charge and jailed. 

In August Rintelen fled the country. The 
Providence Journal had just published an irritat- 
ing charge that Boy-Ed was carrying on negoti- 
ations with Mexico; the German Embassy de- 
nied the charge, although Boy-Ed with his 
knowledge of Mexico had assisted ably in the 
plot; and the excitement of official interest in 
Huerta's recent connections made von Rintelen 
nervous. When he was captured at Falmouth 



Mexico, Ireland, and Bolo 295 

by the British, his man-Friday, Andrew V. Me- 
loy, confessed that he had inadvertently tipped 
over the plot when he had innocently telephoned 
a Carranzista to find out, for safety sake, whether 
the Carranza party suspected Huerta. It was 
this Carranzista who made a few inquiries of his 
own, and succeeded in planting the spy in the 
Holland House meeting. 

The aged general, although he was transferred 
to a more comfortable prison, took his confine- 
ment bitterly. His dream had been bright in- 
deed, and it had been bluntly interrupted. As the 
autumn came on his health showed signs of fail- 
ing, and his career of dissipation began to total 
the final reckoning. The illness became grave, 
and after two surgical attempts to save his life, 
he died in January, 191 6, heartbroken. 

Von Eckhart, the minister to Mexico City, was 
to Mexico what Bernstorff was to the United 
States and he employed faithfully the familiar 
tactics of his superior : revolution, editorial prop- 
aganda, filibustering and double dealing. In the 
fall of 1 91 6 the fine German hand could be seen 
prompting a note sent by Mexico to the United 
States urging an embargo on the shipment on 
munitions and foodstuffs to the warring nations 
(Mexico had neither foodstuffs nor munitions to 
supply). And in December, 1916, Eckhart was 



296 The German Secret Service in America 

robbed of the achievement of a conspiracy of 
fantastic proportions. 

In order to appreciate the fantasy, one must 
bear in mind the temperament of a Central Ameri- 
can. Eckhart and his colleague, Lehmann, Ger- 
man minister to Guatemala, proposed to harness 
that temperament to a German wagon and drive 
the Latin republics to the formation of "the 
United States of Central America," which pre- 
sumably would have borne a Prussian eagle in 
the field of its ensign. 

Carranza disliked Cabrera of Guatemala; so, 
too, did Dr. Irias, a Nicaraguan liberal. Certain 
factions in Honduras disapproved of their presi- 
dent; certain factions in Guatemala could be 
counted on to support revolution against Cabrera; 
Dr. Irias, the defeated candidate, disliked Emili- 
ano Chammorra, the President of Nicaragua, 
enormously. What more natural than that they 
combine forces and with German money and 
arms kindle not one revolution but a series of 
them, with an invasion thrown in for good meas- 
ure? Accordingly they conferred with a Salva- 
dorean politician, a Cuban revolutionist, and an 
associate of the Costa Rican minister of war. 
The cast complete, they planned to assemble revo- 
lutionary forces, with German military advisers, 
on the coast of Salvador. Using Salvador as a 



Mexico, Ireland, and Bolo 297 

base, attacks were to be made upon Nicaragua 
and Guatemala, and at the proper time Carranza 
was to invade Guatemala from the north. Co- 
lombia's services were to be enlisted by the prom- 
ise of restoration of the Republic of Panama — 
originally a Colombian province. As soon as the 
combined revolutionaries had succeeded in over- 
throwing their governments, they were to form 
the United States of Central America, with Irias 
as president, and William of Hohenzollern as 
counsel. 

Our levity is pointed not at the Central Ameri- 
can temperament and political instability, but 
rather towards the grotesquely serious objective 
of the German plotters. If their military forces 
had been Prussian shock troops they would cer- 
tainly have succeeded. The use of a Mexican 
gunboat to transport German officers with an air- 
plane and wireless apparatus from Mexico to 
Salvador exposed the plan. President Cabrera 
of Guatemala had a small but effective force of 
thirty thousand men, and a well-equipped artil- 
lery, armed — and he was prepared for attack 
from either frontier. He also enjoyed the con- 
fidence of Washington, and he informed Wash- 
ington at once what was afoot. The answer ar- 
rived presently in the shape of the American 
fleet, on a peaceful expedition to survey the Gulf 



298 The German Secret Service in America 

of Fonseca, its newly acquired Nicaraguan naval 
base. The revolutions failed for want of revo- 
lutionists, the German enterprise failed for want 
of revolutions, and of the conspirators only one, 
Tinoco of Costa Rica, succeeded in capitalizing 
the unrest by a coup d'etat which made him presi- 
dent. The plot never reached maturity in Co- 
lombia or Panama. 

Before dismissing it from consideration, how- 
ever, it is worth a moment's analysis. With any 
degree of success it would have distracted the 
United States, and perhaps have involved her 
marine corps as well as her navy. It contained 
possibilities of war between Mexico and the 
United States. It projected a blow at the Pan- 
ama Canal. It concerned a territory in which 
commercially as well diplomatically the United 
States had definite concern and in which Ger- 
many had already shown a greedy interest. In- 
cidentally it reveals — in its offer to Colombia — 
the same diplomatic technique as that which was 
shortly to startle the United States into the last 
step towards war, the so-called "Zimmermann 
note." 

At 3 a. m. (Berlin time) on January 19, 1917, 
the following message was sent by wireless to 
Count von Bernstorfr from the Foreign Office : 



Mexico, Ireland, and Bolo 299 

"Berlin, January 19, 1917. 

"On the first of February we intend to begin submarine 
warfare unrestricted. In spite of this it is our endeavor 
to keep neutral the United States of America. 

"If this is not successful we propose an alliance on the 
following basis with Mexico : That we shall make war 
together and together shall make peace. We shall give 
general financial support and it is understood that Mexico 
is to recover the lost territory in New Mexico, Texas and 
Arizona. The details are left to you for settlement. 

"You are also instructed to inform the president of 
Mexico of the above in the greatest confidence as soon as 
it is certain there will be an outbreak of war with the 
United States and suggest that the President of Mexico 
on his own initiative should communicate with Japan sug- 
gesting adherence at once to this plan ; at the same time 
offer to mediate between Germany and Japan. 

"Please call to the attention of the President of Mexico 
that the employment of ruthless submarine warfare now 
promises to compel England to make peace in a few 
months. 

"(Signed) Zimmermann." 

This document was decoded from the official 
dictionary cipher and laid in the hands of Presi- 
dent Wilson almost immediately following the 
rupture of diplomatic relations. It was made 
public on February 28, when the public temper 
was at whitest heat. Mexico did not repudiate 
the note at once, and four days later despatched 
a denial of having received any such proposal 



300 The German Secret Service in America 

as Zimmermann had suggested. Eckhart was 
forcing Carranza's hand with the lure of the pro- 
jected Central American enterprise already out- 
lined. ( Eckhart had had Carranza so completely 
under his influence at one time that when the 
United States despatched to Mexico a friendly 
note warning her of the presence of German sub- 
marines in the Gulf, Mexico retorted — at Eck- 
hart's literal dictation — that the United States 
might do well to ask the British Navy why it did 
not prevent German undersea craft from ap- 
proaching the Americas. ) The month of March 
fled by, and America went to war ; since that date 
no official expression except one of praise for 
Mexico's attitude of amiable neutrality has is- 
sued from Washington. 

Just as the proximity of Mexico to the United 
States had for a number of years past carried 
with it the possibility, almost the certainty, of 
differences between the two countries, rising out 
of the temperamental differences of their peoples, 
so for a longer period had Ireland and England 
suffered for their contiguity. It is a truism to 
remark that the Irishman cherishes his national 
grievances, but that characteristic accounts for a 
further phase of German intrigue on American 
soil. Hatred of England sent many thousands 
of Irish to the United States in the past fifty 



Mexico, Ireland, and Bolo 301 

years. They found it a country to their liking, 
which England was not, and although they had 
become indissolubly attached to their adopted 
land, there were in America in 1914 (and there 
are in 1918) numerous Irish who had no dearer 
wish than that England come off second best in 
the great war. Allies after Germany's own 
heart they were, therefore. They had been cul- 
tivated long since: in 1909, when plans were be- 
ing made for a centenary celebration in 1914 of 
the peace that had reigned between the United 
States and England, German-American and 
Irish-American interests began to raise a struc- 
ture of their own, exploiting the prominence 
which certain Germans, such as Franz Sigel and 
Carl Schurz, had enjoyed in the construction of 
the nation. The programme of these interests 
included the erection of elaborate memorials over 
the graves of prominent German Americans, the 
dissemination of legends of German heroes in 
America, and more practically the frustrating of 
the projected Peace Centenary. 

Many of the organizations thus united for a 
practical purpose found a clearing-house in the 
American Truth Society, of which Jeremiah 
O'Leary was the head. Although the Centennial 
Celebration itself was rudely interrupted by the 
advent of war, the German-Irish acquaintance- 



302 The German Secret Service in America 

ship was nourished by the German propagandists 
in America. They observed with pleasure the 
circulation by the Clan-na-Gael of cards inform- 
ing the Irish in America that troops from Erin 
were being assigned to the most dangerous posts 
and the bloodiest attacks and subjected to the 
most severe enemy fire in France, and that the 
hated British were dragging Irish boys from their 
homes to fill up the ranks. Between September, 
1914, and April, 191 5, funds amounting to $80,- 
000 for the purchase of arms and the printing of 
seditious papers and leaflets were forwarded from 
America to Dublin banks, and then mysteriously 
were withdrawn. An inflammatory publication 
known as Bull, published by O'Leary, and not 
barred from the mails until September, 191 7, went 
broadcast over the United States, inciting bitter- 
ness against England, and found a greedy circle 
of readers in the German-American population. 
John Devoy, a Sinn Feiner of standing in Amer- 
ica, fanned the flame with a newspaper known 
as the Gaelic American, published in New York, 
and it is this American-printed sheet which fur- 
nished the Irish revolutionists with material for 
a part of the plot which they were preparing for 
fruition in the year 19 16. 

In 1916 Sir Roger Casement, an Irish knight, 
made his way into Germany. He was permitted 




Copyright, International film Service 

Jeremiah A. O'Leary 



Mexico, Ireland, and Bolo 303 

to visit the prison camp at Limburg where some 
3,000 Irish prisoners of war were quartered, and 
he moved about among them attempting to ob- 
tain enlistments in an army which was to effect a 
coup in Dublin to overthrow the British govern- 
ment in the Castle and to proclaim an Irish Re- 
public. He circulated numerous copies of the 
Gaelic American to arouse the men. He was 
variously received. Some of the prisoners held 
their release worth treason — but only fifty-odd. 
The greater majority rejected Sir Roger's offer, 
and some even chose to curse and spit at the sug- 
gestion that they break their oaths of allegiance 
to Great Britain. He succeeded, however, in en- 
listing German financial assistance, and in early 
April, 19 1 6, a cargo of captured Russian arms 
and ammunition was forwarded to Kiel and 
loaded into the German auxiliary steamship Aud. 
Some 11,000 revolutionists were in a state of 
mental if not martial mobilization in Ireland by 
this time. There were in Dublin some 825 rifles. 
But so cleverly were the volunteers' orders passed 
from member to member, that Sir Matthew Na- 
than, Under-secretary of State for Ireland, testi- 
fied later that he did not know until three days 
before the outbreak occurred that German inter- 
ests were cooperating. Evidently, however, sym- 
pathizers in America knew it full well, for in 



304 The German Secret Service in America 

the von Igel papers captured in von Papen's of- 
fice in New York was found the following mes- 
sage to von Bernstorff : 

"New York, April 17, 1916. 

"Judge Cohalan requests the transmission of the fol- 
lowing remarks: 

"The revolution in Ireland can only be successful if 
supported from Germany, otherwise England will be able 
to suppress it, even though it be only after hard struggles. 
Therefore, help is necessary. This should consist pri- 
marily of aerial attacks in England and a diversion of the 
fleet simultaneously with Irish revolution. Then, if pos- 
sible, a landing of troops, arms, and ammunition in Ire- 
land, and possibly some officers from Zeppelins. This 
would enable the Irish ports to be closed against England 
and the establishment, of stations for submarines on the 
Irish coast and the cutting off of the supply of food for 
England. The services of the revolution may therefore 
decide the war. 

"He asks that a telegram to this effect be sent to Ber- 
lin." 

Presumably such a telegram was sent, although 
on April 17 Sir Roger, with his recruits, was at 
Kiel. Three days before the Berlin press bureau 
had authorized the issuance of a despatch through 
the semi-official Overseas News Agency that "po- 
litical rioting in Ireland is increasing." On the 
same day a news item was published in Copen- 
hagen stating that Sir Roger had been arrested in 



Mexico, Ireland, and Bolo 305 

Germany to allay any suggestion that he was en- 
gaged in any other enterprise. On the afternoon 
of Thursday, April 20, a German submarine stuck 
its conning tower out of water off Tralee, on the 
Irish coast. Three men presently emerged, un- 
folded a collapsible boat, and rowed ashore in it. 
The three were Casement and two of his hench- 
men, come home to Ireland to spread the news 
that German arms and German aid were at hand. 
Off the southwest coast the patrol ship Bluebell 
of the British Navy sighted, on Good Friday 
morning, a ship flying the Norwegian flag, and 
calling herself, in answer to the Bluebell's hail, 
the Aud, out of Bergen for Genoa. Under the 
persuasive effect of a warning shot from the Blue- 
bell the Aud followed her as far as Daunt's Rock, 
where her crew of German sailors set fire to her, 
hoisted the German naval ensign, abandoned ship, 
and then surrendered under fire. The Aud sank, 
carrying the arms for Irish revolution with her. 
Sir Roger was arrested in hiding, and on Easter 
Sunday Dublin broke out in revolt. On Monday 
a cipher message reached O'Leary, telling him of 
the uprising hours before the British censor per- 
mitted the news story to cross the ocean. John 
Devoy burst out in a heated charge in the Gaelic 
American that — 

"The sinking of the German ship loaded with 



306 The German Secret Service in America 

arms and ammunition . . . was the direct result 
of information treacherously given to the British 
Government by a member of the Washington 
Administration . . . Wilson's officials obtained 
the information by an act of lawlessness, a viola- 
tion of international law and of American law, 
committed with the deliberate purpose of helping 
England, and it was promptly put at the disposal 
of the British Government . . ." 

This charge was denied at once from Washing- 
ton. The specific "violation of international law 
and of American law" to which Devoy referred 
was generally supposed to be the seizure of 
the von Igel papers, for the accusation is the same 
as that which von Igel made when his office was 
raided. How Devoy knew that the von Igel 
papers contained information of the proposed ex- 
pedition from Kiel to Ireland is a question which 
Devoy has no doubt had to answer to the Gov- 
ernment of the United States since then. He and 
O'Leary, with Dennis Spellisy, who had collected 
large sums of money for the Sinn Fein cause, 
were loud in their protests against the execution 
of the ringleaders of the revolt on May 3rd, 
which put a sharp end to the endeavors of the 
revolutionists. That O'Leary was known to the 
German system of secret agents in America 
needs no further substantiation. To credit him 



Mexico, Ireland, and Bolo 307j 

with generalship, however, would be doing 
him too great honor and the Irish-American 
population injustice; O'Leary was bitterly pro- 
German, but so were hundreds of more prom- 
inent and influential Irish- Americans : one could 
find the names of several New York Justices 
upon the roster of the Friends of Peace. Sir 
Roger Casement petitioned for a Philadelphia 
lawyer at his trial for treason, and Sir Roger's 
sister attempted unsuccessfully to reach President 
Wilson, through his secretary, Joseph P. Tu- 
multy, in an effort to bring about intercession 
in the doomed knight's favor. (Mr. Tumulty 
was approached more than once by persons 
whom he had reason to suspect of alloyed motives 
who desired to "set forth a case to the Presi- 
dent.") The link between the old country 
and the new is close, the future of Ireland is one 
of more than usual interest and concern to the 
United States, and the fact that the great ma- 
jority of Irish- Americans have subordinated their 
insular convictions to the greater conviction of 
loyalty to their adopted land is at once a fine 
augury of ultimate solution of the Irish question, 
and a dignified rebuke to the efforts which Ger- 
many has made through America to exploit Ire- 
land. 

On Washington's Birthday, 1916, there came to 



308 The German Secret Service in America 

New York one who posed as a French publisher 
and publicist. He brought excellent letters of 
recommendation, and was well supplied with 
money. He was personable, and well sponsored, 
and he was correspondingly well received. 
Within a month he left the United States for 
France, with appropriate expressions of his ap- 
preciation of American hospitality. 

In April, 19 18, that same man faced a French 
firing squad, guilty of having attempted to be- 
tray his country, and of having traded with the 
enemy. 

He was Paul Bolo Pacha, Paul Bolo by com- 
mon usage, Pacha by whatever right is vested in 
a deposed Khedive to confer titles. Born some- 
where in the obscurity of the Levant, he came as a 
boy to Marseilles. He was successively barber's- 
boy, lobster-monger, husband of a rich woman 
who left him her estate, then cafe-owner and 
wine-agent. Then he drifted to Cairo, and into 
the good graces of Abbas Hilmi, the Khedive. 
Abbas was deposed by the British in 1914 as pro- 
German, and went to Geneva ; Bolo followed. 

Charles F. Bertelli, the correspondent in Paris 
of the Hearst newspapers, naively related before 
Captain Bouchardon, a French prosecutor, the 
circumstances of his acquaintanceship with Bolo, 
which led to the latter's cordial reception at the 



Mexico j Ireland, and Bolo 309 

hands of Hearst when he arrived in New York. 
". . . Jean Finot, Directeur of La Revue, . . . 
had sent him a letter of introduction to Mr. 
Hearst and had requested me to accredit him with 
Mr. Hearst. He had said to me : 'Occupy your- 
self with the matter, Bolo has very great political 
power ; he is the proprietor of Le Journal and it 
would be well that Hearst should know him.' . . . 
I made the voyage with Bolo. ... I spoke of 
Bolo to Hearst and the latter said to me, 'If he is 
a great proprietor of French newspapers, I should 
be very glad to. . . / As a compliment to 
Hearst, Bolo gave a grand dinner at Sherry's. 
. . . Bolo had two personal guests: Jules Bois 
and the German, Pavenstedt. . . ." We need 
draw on Bertelli no further than to introduce 
the same Adolph Pavenstedt in whose offices 
Papen and Boy-Ed had sought refuge at the out- 
break of war in 1914; Adolph Pavenstedt, head 
of the banking house of G. Amsinck & Co., 
through which the attaches paid their henchmen 
for attempts at the Welland Canal, the Vanceboro 
bridge, and at America's peace in general. Bolo 
had made Pavenstedt's acquaintance in Havana 
in 1913. 

Four days after he landed in New York, and 
before the Hearst dinner (which was incidental to 
the plot) Bolo had progressed with his negotia- 



310 The German Secret Service in America 

tions to betray France to a point where von 
Bernstorff sent the following message to the For- 
eign Office in Berlin : 

"Number 679, February twenty-sixth. 

"I have received direct information from an entirely 
trustworthy source concerning a political action in one of 
the enemy countries which would bring about peace. One 
of the leading political personalities of the country in 
question is seeking a loan of one million seven hundred 
thousand dollars in New York, for which security will be 
given. I was forbidden to give his name in writing. The 
affair seems to me to be of the greatest possible import- 
ance. Can the money be provided at once in New York? 
That the intermediary will keep the matter secret is en- 
tirely certain. Request answer by telegram. A verbal 
report will follow as soon as a trustworthy person can be 
found to bring it to Germany. 

"Bernstorff." 

Herr von Jagow felt that even at that date 
peace with any belligerent was worth $1,700,000. 
He cabled back : 

"No. 150, February twenty-ninth. 

"Answer to telegram No. 679 : 

"Agree to the loan, but only if peace action seems to 
you a really serious project, as the provision of money 
in New York is for us at present extraordinarily difficult. 
If the enemy country is Russia have nothing to do with 
the business, as the sum of money is too small to have 




Ctpjritht. lnttrnutionul Film Heruict 

Paul Bolo Pacha (on the right) 



Mexico, Ireland, and Bolo 311 

any serious effect in that country. So too in the case of 
Italy, for it would not be worth while, to spend so much. 

"(Signed) Jagow." 

The plan approved, the next step was to pay 
Bolo. Bernstorff's cablegram of March 5, 
Number 685, pleaded for the money. 

"Please instruct Deutsches Bank to hold 9,000,000 
marks at disposal of Hugo Schmidt. The affair is very 
promising. Further particulars follow." 

The next day Hugo Schmidt, American repre- 
sentative of the Deutsches Bank, sent the follow- 
ing wireless through the station at Sayville to the 
Deutsches Bank Direktion, Berlin: 

"Communicate with William Foxley (the Foreign 
Office) and telegraph whether he has placed money at my 
disposal for Charles Gladhill (Count von Bernstorff)." 

The reply came three days later. It read : 

"Replying your cable about Charles Gladhill (von 
Bernstorff) Fred Hooven (the Guaranty Trust Company 
of New York) will receive money for our account. You 
may dispose according to our letter of November 24, 
19 1 4, to Fred Hooven." 

On March it, Schmidt, who was working night 
and day to consummate the deal, wirelessed again 
to Berlin: 



312 The German Secret Service in America 

"Your wireless received. Paid Charles Gladhill (von 
Bernstorff) $500 (which signified $500,000) through Fred 
Hooven (the Guaranty Trust Company). Gladhill re- 
quires further $1,100 ($1,100,000) which shall pay 
gradually." 

Bolo's affairs were promising well. He had 
brought with him from Paris a letter of intro- 
duction to the New York manager of the Royal 
Bank of Canada, stating that he was the pub- 
lisher of Le Journal, which required a large 
quantity of news print paper every day, and that 
he had been commissioned by all of the other 
large newspaper publishers in Paris to arrange a 
contract for 20,000 tons monthly. Bolo con- 
firmed his intention to perform this mission when 
he deposited in the Royal Bank of Canada $500,- 
000 which Hugo Schmidt had drawn from the 
German government deposits in the National 
Park Bank and had given to Pavenstedt, who in 
turn checked it over to the French traitor. It 
was not the purchase of print paper which in- 
terested him, however, but the perversion, 
through purchase, of as many French newspapers 
as he could lay his slimy hands on; once in his 
possession, they could be made to carry out a 
sinister propaganda for a separate peace be- 
tween France and Germany. Germany had 
offered, through Abbas Hilmi, to yield Alsace- 



Mexico, Ireland, and Bolo 313 

Lorraine in return for certain French colonies, 
and to evacuate the occupied portions of French 
soil, and by painting such a settlement in bright 
colors to the people of France Bolo could have 
1 served Germany's ends effectively either by 
actually accomplishing some such settlement, or 
by weakening the morale which was so largely re- 
sponsible for holding the German drive against 
Verdun, then in the first stages of its fury. 

On March 17, the Deutsches Bank wirelessed 
to Schmidt: 

"You may dispose on Fred Hooven (the Guaranty 
Trust Company) on behalf Charles Gladhill (von Bern- 
storff) $1,700 (which meant $1,700,000)." 

Bolo had his million and three-quarters, which 
he had asked. He had made disposition of it 
through the Royal Bank, setting a portion aside 
to his wife's credit, depositing another portion to 
the credit of Senator Charles Humbert (part- 
owner with Bolo of he Journal) and holding a 
reserve of a million dollars in the Royal Bank 
subject to his call. Then he took ship for France. 

His final arrangements with Pavenstedt 
prompted von Bernstorff to send the following 
message on March 20 to the Foreign Office : 

"No. 692, March 20. 

"With reference to telegram No. 685 please advise our 



314 The German Secret Service in America 

Minister in Berne that some one will call on him who will 
give him the password Sanct Regis who wished to estab- 
lish relations with the Foreign Office. Intermediary 
further requests that influence may be brought to bear in 
France so far as possible in silence so that things may not 
be spoiled by German approval. 

" ( Signed ) Bernstorff."' 

Von Bernstorff had been cautious enough dur- 
ing Bolo's sojourn in the United States to 
negotiate with him only through Pavenstedt, in 
order that the Embassy might not be com- 
promised in an exceedingly hazardous undertak- 
ing if any suggestion of Bolo's real designs leaked 
out. He was fully prepared in such an event to 
repudiate Pavenstedt, and to state honestly that 
he had never seen or heard of Bolo, for until the 
day before he left, when Pavenstedt asked the 
Ambassador for the telegram of introduction 
quoted above, Bernstorff did not know Bolo's 
name. That he did know it then, and that he 
discussed Bolo with Berlin during April and May 
is evident from the following cable, sent from 
the Foreign Secretary to the Embassy at Wash- 
ington on May 31 : 

"Number 206. May 31st. The person announced in 
telegram 692 of March 20th has not yet reported himself 
at the Legation at Berne. Is there any more news on 
your side of Bolo? "Jagow." 



Mexico, Ireland, and Bolo 315 

There was not, although Bolo was keeping the 
cables hot with messages directing the further 
transfer of the nest-egg of $1,700,000 which he 
had acquired in his month in New York. He 
wanted the money credited to the account of 
Senator Humbert in J. P. Morgan & Co., then 
through Morgan, Harjes & Co. of Paris he di- 
rected the remittance of his funds to Paris, then 
cancelled those instructions and directed that his 
million be credited to him in Perrier & Cie., in 
which he was interested. What twists and turns 
of fate occasioned the juggling of these funds 
after he returned to France is not known, but cer- 
tainly no bag of plunder ever passed through 
more artful manipulation. The explanation of 
its hectic adventures may lie in the fact that the 
spectacle of Bolo, commissioned to go to the 
United States to spend money for news print, and 
returning with nearly two millions of dollars, 
would have interested the French police. 

For more than a year he covered his tracks. 
Shortly after his return the Bonnet Rouge, the 
declining publication which served ex-Premier 
Joseph Caillaux as mouthpiece, began to attract 
attention for its discussion of peace propaganda. 
A strain of pessimism over the conduct of the 
war began to make itself apparent in other 
journals. The arrest of Duval and Almereyda 



316 The German Secret Service in America 

of the Bonnet Rouge disclosed certain of Bolo s 
activities and a search of his house in February 
revealed papers covering certain of his financial 
transactions in America. The United States was 
requested to investigate, and refused, as the affair 
was considered political, and it was not until we 
joined France in the war that the request was re- 
peated, this time with better success. 

Attorney-General Merton Lewis of New York 
State conducted an investigation which revealed 
every step of Bolo's operations in New York. 
His search of the records of the banks involved 
indicated that a fund of some $50,000,000 in cash 
and negotiable securities lay on deposit in 
America which the Deutsches Bank could place 
at the disposal of von BernstorfT and his fellow 
conspirators at any time for any purpose, and 
which was adequate as a reserve for any enter- 
prise which might present itself. The evidence 
against Bolo was forwarded to Paris, and he was 
arrested. On October 4, 19 17, Secretary Lan- 
sing made public the correspondence which the 
State Department had intercepted. 

The French public became hysterically in- 
terested in the case. Senator Humbert promptly 
refunded the 5,500,000 francs which he had re- 
ceived from Bolo for 1,600 shares in Le Journal. 
Almereyda of the Bonnet Rouge committed 



Mexico, Ireland, and Bolo 317 

suicide in prison; his death dragged Malvy, 
Minister of the Interior under Ribot, out of office 
under suspicion of trading with the enemy; the 
editor of a Paris financial paper was imprisoned 
on the same charge ; "Boloism" became a generic 
term, and the French government, feeling a grow- 
ing restlessness on the part of the public, en- 
couraged the new diversion of spy-hunting which 
resulted in the exposure of negotiations between 
Caillaux and German representatives in Buenos 
Aires. Russia had been dissolved by similar 
German propaganda, Italy, after vigorous ad- 
vances into Italia Irridenta, had had her military 
resistance sapped by another such campaign as 
Bolo proposed for France, and had retreated to 
the Po valley; the sum total of "Boloism" during 
the autumn and winter of 1917-1918 was an in- 
creased conviction on the part of the Allied 
peoples that the line must be held more firmly 
than ever, while the rear was combed for prom- 
inent traitors. 

Thus, a year before she entered war, the United 
States supplied the scene of one of the outstanding 
intrigues of the war. How voluble was Adolph 
Pavenstedt in confessing his services as interme- 
diary for the Kaiser ; Pavenstedt was interned in 
an American prison camp ... a rather comfort- 
able camp. Hugo Schmidt, who on his own tes- 



318 The German Secret Service in America 

timony was the accredited manipulator of enor- 
mous sums for the German government, was 
ingenuous to a degree in his denial of any knowl- 
edge of what the money paid Bolo was to be used 
for ; Schmidt was interned. Bolo was shot. 

Revolution in India, a battle royal on the 
Central American isthmus, a revolution in 
Mexico, uprisings in the West Indies, a separate 
peace in France — these were ambitious under- 
takings. For three years they were cleared 
through Washington, D. C. We must accept 
that fact not alone with the natural feeling of 
chagrin which it evokes, but with an eye to the 
future. We should congratulate our smug selves 
that our country was concerned only with the 
processes of these intrigues, and was not subject 
directly to their results. And then we Americans 
should ask ourselves whether it is not logical that, 
our country having served as the most fertile 
ground for German demoralization of other 
nations, we should be on our guard for a similar 
plot against ourselves. 

That plot will not come noisily, obviously. It 
will be no crude effort to suggest that "American 
troops are suffering at the hands of the French 
high command." It will not be phrased in terms 
which reek of the Wilhelmstrasse — earnest, 
plodding, grotesque German polysyllables. The 



Mexico, Ireland, and Bolo 819 

German knows that an army must depend upon 
the hearts of its people, and he reasons : "I shall 
attack the hearts of the people, and I believe that 
if it is a good principle to attack my enemy from 
the rear through his people, it is also a good prin- 
ciple to attack his people from the rear. The 
heart is as near the back as it is the front, nicht 
wahr?" The plot will seem, in its early stages, 
part and parcel of our daily life and concern ; we 
shall not see the German hand in it; the hand 
will be so concealed as not even to excite the 
enthusiasm of the German-American, often a 
good danger-signal. It will involve institutions 
and individuals whom we have trusted, and we 
shall take sides in the controversy, and we shall 
grow violently pro-this and anti-that. We shall 
grow sick of the wretchedness of affairs, per- 
haps, and we shall lose heart. That is precisely 
what Germany most desires. That is what Ger- 
many is striving for. That is why the nobility 
of our citizenship carries with it the obligation 
of vigilance. It is in the hope that each one of us 
Americans may learn how Germany works 
abroad, that we may be better prepared for her 
next step here, that this narrative has been 
written. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

AMERICA GOES TO WAR 

Bernstorff's request for bribe-money — The President 
on German spies — Interned ships seized — Enemy aliens 
— Interning German agents — The water-front and finger- 
print regulations — Pro-German acts since April, 1917 — 
A warning and a prophecy. 

On January 22, 191 7, President Wilson set 
forth to the Senate of the United States his ideas 
of the steps necessary to secure world peace. On 
the same day Count von Bernstorff sent his For- 
eign Office this message : 

"I request authority to pay out up to $50,000 (Fifty 
thousand dollars) in order, as on former occasions, to 
influence Congress through the organization you know 
of, which perhaps can prevent war. I am beginning in 
the meantime to act accordingly. In the above circum- 
stance a public official German declaration in favor of 
Ireland is highly desirable in order to gain the support 
of Irish influence here." 

The money did not have the desired soothing 
effect. Nine days later Germany announced un- 
restricted submarine warfare as her immediate 

320 



America Goes to War 321 

future policy and the head of the German spy- 
system in America received his passports for re- 
turn to Germany. He was succeeded by the head 
of the German spy system in America, 

The real name of this successor is not known 
to the authorities at this date. If it were he 
would be arrested, and punished according to 
whatever specific crime he had committed against 
a set of American statutes created for conditions 
of peace. Then, with the head of the German 
spy system in America in prison, he would be 
succeeded, as Bernstorff was, by the head of the 
German spy system in America. 

And so this absurd progression would go on, 
until finally there would be no more spies to head 
the system on the American front. How much 
the system would be able to accomplish during the 
painstaking pursuit and capture of its successive 
heads would depend upon America's swiftness 
in pursuit and capture. Who the individual in 
authority over the system is, and what is his 
structure of organization, cannot be answered 
here. But it is vitally necessary for every citi- 
zen who has the free existence of this republic 
at heart to decide, basing his judgment on cer- 
tain events since the declaration of war, what 
measure of accomplishment the German spy sys- 
tem shall have, and what it has already effected 



322 The German Secret Service in America 

against a nation with which it is now openly and 
frankly at war. 

Let him first recall that in his Flag Day speech 
of June 14, 1916, President Wilson said in part: 

"There is disloyalty in the United States, and 
it must be absolutely crushed. It proceeds from 
a minority, a very small minority, but a very 
active and subtle minority. ... If you could 
have gone with me through the space of the last 
two years and could have felt the subtle impact 
of intrigue and sedition, and have realized with 
me that those to whom you have intrusted au- 
thority are trustees not only of the power but 
also of the very spirit and purpose of the United 
States, you would realize with me the solemnity 
with which I look upon the sublime symbol of 
our unity and power." 

Let him then refer to the President's Flag: Dav 
address of one year later (quoted at the begin- 
ning of the book). With those admirable ex- 
pressions in mind, let him recapitulate the activ- 
ities of German sympathizers or agents since 
February, 191 7. 

Ninety-one vessels flying the German flag 
were in American harbors. Their displacement 
totalled nearly six hundred thousand tons — the 
equivalent of a fleet of seventy-five of the cargo 
carriers on which the United States later began 



America Goes to War 323 

construction to offset the submarine. Months in 
advance of the severance of diplomatic relations, 
orders had been issued from the Embassy to the 
masters of all these vessels in case of war between 
Germany and the United States to cripple the 
ships. With the break in relations imminent, 
German agents slipped aboard the vessels and 
gave the word: the great majority of the ninety- 
one ships were then put out of commission by the 
368 officers and 826 men aboard. The damage 
was performed with crowbars and axes. Vital 
parts had been chalk-marked weeks in advance, 
so that the destruction might be effected swiftly : 
delicate mechanisms were mashed beyond recog- 
nition, important parts removed and smuggled 
ashore or dropped overboard, cylinders cracked, 
emery dust introduced in the bearings of the en- 
gines, pistons battered out of shape, and the ma- 
chinery of the ships generally destroyed as only 
skilled engineers could have destroyed them. 
Out of thirty ships in New York harbor, thirty 
ships were damaged — among them the liners, 
Vaterland, of 54,000 tons, the George Washing- 
ton, of 25,000 tons, the Kaiser Wilhelm, the Pres- 
ident Lincoln, and the President Grant, of about 
20,000 tons each. In the harbor of Charleston, 
S. C., lay the Liebenfels, of 4,525 tons; her crew, 
led by Captain Johann Klattenhoff, scuttled her 



824 The German Secret Service in America 

on February I, in the navigating channel of 
Charleston Harbor; Klattenhoff, with Paul 
Wierse, a Charleston newspaper man, and eight 
of the Liebenfels' crew were tried and convicted 
of the crime, fined and sentenced to periods aver- 
aging a year in Atlanta. The discovery of the 
damage forced the Government to take over the 
vessels at once. The Department of Justice has- 
tened on February 2 to notify all of its deputies 
"to take prompt measures against the attempt 
at destruction or sinking or escape of such ships 
by their crews" which those crews had already 
done; and the customs authorities who boarded 
the ships in San Francisco, Honolulu, New York, 
Boston, Manila, and every other American port 
came ashore with rueful countenances. The 
combined damage served to tie the vessels up for 
at least six months more, and to require expen- 
sive repair. To return to the comparison : a fleet 
of seventy-five 8,000 ton cargo vessels, such as 
have since been built, would have been able to 
make, during those six months, at least four 
round trips to France each, or 300 voyages. 

When the German fleet put into neutral Amer- 
ican ports of refuge in 1914 the personnel of its 
ships totalled 476 officers and 4,980 men. When 
the ships were seized in 19 17, there were 368 
officers and 826 men aboard. Of those who had 



America Goes to War 325 

been discharged or allowed indefinite shore leave 
a considerable number were active German 
agents, by far the great majority were German 
citizens,.and the United States was on the horns 
of a dilemma: either each of the sailors ashore 
must be watched on suspicion, or else each was 
free to go about the country as he pleased. Thus 
more than 4,000 potential secret agents from an 
active auxiliary arm of the German navy were 
dumped on the hospitality which our neutrality 
entailed. When war was declared those men 
came within the troublesome problem of the 
status of the enemy alien. 

What was an enemy alien? The United 
States, on April 6, declared war against Ger- 
many. "Meanwhile," reads the report of the 
Attorney-General for 191 7, "prior to the pas- 
sage of the joint resolution of Congress of April 
6, 1917, elaborate preparation was made for the 
arrest of upward of 63 alien enemies whom past 
investigation had shown to constitute a danger 
to the peace and safety of the United States if 
allowed to remain at large." These "alien ene- 
mies" were male Germans. Not Austrians, for 
the United States did not go to war with Austria 
until December 7. Not Bulgars, nor Turks, for 
the United States has not declared war upon Bul- 
garia or Turkey. Not female Germans, in the 



326 The German Secret Service in America 

face of the full knowledge of the predilections of 
Bernstorff, Boy-Ed, and von Papen for employ- 
ing women in espionage. Of the thousands of 
Germans in the United States whose sympathies 
were presently to be demonstrated in numerous 
ways against the successful prosecution of Amer- 
ica's war, sixty-three had been deemed worthy 
of arrest. By June 30 this number had risen 
to 295, and by October 30 to 895. "Some of 
those interned," continues the report, "have been 
paroled with the necessary bonds and restric- 
tions." Although the United States went to war 
on April 6, Karl Heynen, who managed the 
Bridgeport Projectile Company for Bernstorfr" 
and Albert, and who had previously earned the 
good will of the United States by gun-running 
in Mexico, was not arrested until July 6, in his 
offices in the Hamburg-American Line at 45 
Broadway. At the same time F. A. Borge- 
meister, former adviser to Dr. Albert, and lat- 
terly Heynen's lieutenant, was arrested. Both 
were interned at Fort Oglethorpe and dur- 
ing December, Borgemeister was allowed three 
weeks' liberty on parole. Rudolph Hecht, con- 
fidant of Dr. Albert, who had sold German war 
loan bonds for the Kaiser, and w r ho had also 
been interned, was released for a like period of 
liberty in December. G. B. Kulenkampf, who 



America Goes to War 327 

had secured false manifest papers for the supply- 
ship Berwind in August, 19 14, was arrested on 
May 28, 1918, more than one year after America 
had entered the war; on the same day Robert 
J. Oberfohren, a statistician employed by the 
Hamburg-American, was arrested and in his 
room were captured compiled statistics covering 
the exports of munitions from the United States 
during the two years past: Oberfohren said he 
expected to turn the figures in to the University 
of Munich after the war. 

Bernstorfl himself left an able alien enemy in 
the Swiss Legation in Washington. He was 
Heinrich Schaffhausen, and had been one of the 
brightest attaches of the German Embassy. As 
a member for three months of the Swiss Legation 
he might readily have sent (and no doubt did 
send) information of military value to his own 
people in code, under protection of the Swiss 
seal. The State Department on July 6 ordered 
his deportation. Adolph Pavenstedt was ar- 
rested on January 22, 191 8, in the Adirondacks, 
after having enjoyed nine months' immunity; 
Otto Julius Merkle was not interned until De- 
cember 7; Gupta, the Hindu, was finally caught 
in New York in 1917, gave bail, and escaped; Dr. 
John Ferrari, alias F. W. Hiller, a German officer 
who had escaped from a British detention camp 



328 The German Secret Service in America 

in India and had joined the German intrigue 
colony, was interned in January, 1918; Baron 
Gustave von Hasperg was arrested only after he 
had displayed undue interest in the National 
Army cantonment at Upton in the same month; 
Franz Rosenberg, a wealthy German importer, 
convicted in 191 5 of having attempted to smug- 
gle rubber in cotton bales into Germany, and fined 
$500 for that offense, was allowed at liberty un- 
til February 9, 1918; in a round-up which took 
place in January, 19 18, the Federal authorities 
collected such celebrities as Hugo Schmidt, Fred- 
erick Stallforth, and Baron George von Seebeck 
(the son of General von Seebeck, commander of 
the Tenth Corps of the German army). 

The cases cited are picked at random out of 
a mass. They illustrate the breathing periods 
given to Germans who had been active under 
Bernstorff in disturbing America's peace and 
defying her laws. They serve also to illustrate 
the contrast between the methods employed by 
the United States, and those adopted by her 
Allies, from whom she has taken other lessons 
in the business of warfare. France gave alien 
enemies forty-eight hours in which to leave the 
soil of the country, and any such person found 
at large after that date was to be interned 
in a detention camp. To have interned all of 



America Goes to War 329 

the Germans in the United States would have 
been impossible and the Government took some 
time to find a second best method. By May 2 
the Department of Justice was in a position to 
announce that it had plans for internment camps 
for three classes of aliens: prisoners of war, 
enemy aliens, and detained aliens, and it an- 
nounced on that date there were some 6,000 in 
those classes already detained. By February 17, 
1918, however, there were actually no more than 
1,870 aliens interned under the war department 
and under military guard at Forts McPherson, 
Oglethorpe and Douglas, and some 2,000 at Hot 
Springs, North Carolina, in the Department of 
Labor's detention camp. 

At both camps the prisoners were fed and 
housed at the expense of the Government, and it 
was not until the early spring of 191 8 that they 
were put to work. 

From April 6 to July 10, 191 7, an enemy alien 
could be employed by any shipbuilder, tug-boat 
captain, lighterage firm or steamship line; he 
could go about any waterfront at will, provided 
he did not enter the so-called "barred zones" in 
the vicinity of Government military or naval 
property, and he could make unmolested such 
observations as his eyesight afforded of the ship- 
ping upon which the United States depends for 



330 The German Secret Service in America 

its share in this war. After that date he was 
forbidden such employment, and denied approach 
to all wharves and ships. On July 9 the Govern- 
ment discharged from its employ 200 German 
subjects who for weeks past had been loading 
transports at the docks in an "Atlantic port." A 
raid on the Hoboken waterfront in the following 
winter rounded up 200 more enemy aliens who 
had calmly ignored the "barred zone" regula- 
tions. 

The Government was confronted with a stu- 
pendous problem. How to handle with its nor- 
mal peace-time police force the great unwieldy 
flow of the alien population presented a con- 
stantly baffling question, yet it was absolutely 
essential to the control of internal affairs that the 
Government know the comings and goings of the 
enemies within its gates. The date of February 
13, 1918, was eventually set as the last on which 
citizens of enemy countries living in the United 
States might set down their finger prints and 
names and file their affidavits of residence and 
condition. 

What facilities had the United States provided 
for transacting this great volume of additional 
protective duty? There existed, first of all, the 
Department of Justice, whose chief function in 
peace-time had been the enforcement through its 



America Goes to War 331 

investigators and prosecutors of acts of Con- 
gress, such as the so-called Mann "White Slave" 
Act, and the Sherman "Anti-Trust" Act. There 
was the United States Secret Service, a bureau 
of the Treasury Department, whose chief func- 
tion had been the detection of smuggling and 
counterfeiting and the protection of the person 
of the President. There was the Intelligence 
Bureau of the War Department, and a similar 
Bureau of the Navy Department, both under- 
manned, as was every other branch of our mili- 
tary forces at that time. The advent of war 
brought a complicated necessity for coordination 
of these four branches and of several other Fed- 
eral investigating bureaus. 

The German did not wait for coordination. 
He inspired food riots among the poorer classes 
of the lower East Side in New York. He 
opposed the draft law, rallying to his sup- 
port the Socialist, the Anarchist, and the Indus- 
trial Worker of the World, under whose cloak 
he hid, not too well concealed. He celebrated the 
declaration of war by blowing up a munitions 
plant at Eddy stone, Pa., on April 10, 19 17, and 
killing 112 persons, most of whom were women 
and girls. He sneaked information into Ger- 
many through the Swedish legation. He tried 
to promote strikes in Pittsburg, but his agent, 



332 The German Secret Service in America 

Walter Zacharias, was arrested. He tried to 
dynamite the Elephant-Butte dam on the Rio 
Grande, but his agent, Dr. Louis Kopf, was 
caught. He caused a serious revolution in Cuba 
until his agents were expelled. He tried to 
block the Liberty Loans, in vain. He tried -to 
obstruct the collection of Red Cross funds. 
He caused strikes in the airplane-spruce forests 
of the Northwest. He assisted Lieutenant Hans 
Berg of the captured German prize Appam to 
escape from Fort McPherson with nine of his 
crew in October, 19 17. He erected secret wire- 
less stations at various points, to communicate 
to Berlin via Mexico, whither thousands of his 
army reservists had fled on false passports at 
the outbreak of war. He smuggled information 
of military importance in and out of the country 
in secret inks, on neutral vessels, and even wrote 
them (on one occasion) in cipher upon the shoul- 
der of a prima donna. He burned warehouses 
and shell plants. He sawed the keel of a trans- 
port nearly through. He placed a culture of 
ptomaine germs in the milk supply of the cadets' 
school at Fort Leavenworth. He invented a 
chemical preparation which would cause painful 
injury to the kidneys of every man who drank 
water in a certain army cantonment. Lie re- 
ceived Irish rebellionists and negotiated with 



America Goes to War 333 

them for further revolution. He made his way 
into our munitions plants and secured data which 
he forwarded to Berlin; he worked in our aero- 
plane plants and deliberately weakened certain 
vital parts of the tenuous construction so that 
our aviators died in training; he kept track of 
our transports, and of the movements of our 
forces, and passed them on to the Wilhelmstrasse. 
He sold heroin to our soldiers and sailors. He 
supplied men for the motor boat Alexander 
Agassig which put to sea from a Pacific port to 
raid commerce. In short, he continued to carry 
out, with multiplied opportunity, the same tactics 
he had employed since August, 19 14. 

The German spy in America continues to 
attack our armies in the rear. He is here in 
force. A word to him may mean that within 
twenty-four hours Kiel will know of another 
transport embarking with certain forces for 
France. He is here to take the lives of Amer- 
icans just as certainly as his kinsman is firing 
across a parapet in Lorraine for the same pur- 
pose. Whatever provision will save those lives 
must be made swiftly. The Departments, al- 
ready overtaxed with the magnitude of their task, 
ask simply that they be given the weapons to 
make their splendid battle on the American front 
successful. 



334 The German Secret Service in America 

Whatever aid and comfort the enemy may find 
in this recitation of his disgraceful achievements 
and graceless failures, he may have and wel- 
come. He has imposed upon the hospitality of 
the United States, has dragged his clumsy boots 
over the length and breadth of their estate, has 
run amuck with torch and explosive, and has 
earned a great deal of loathing contempt, hardly 
amounting to hatred. But no fear — and that is 
what he sought. The spectacle of what the dis- 
loyalists of America have done, and the easily 
conjurable picture of what they would do if Ger- 
many should win, are graphic enough for loyal 
America. The United States must proceed with 
incisive vigor to cut out this poisonous German 
sore. And the United States will remember the 
scar. It is so written. 



APPENDIX 
A GERMAN PROPAGANDIST 

In 191 5 Fritz von Pilis came to America. He had 
been a member of the colonization bureau of the German 
Government maintained to Prussianize Poland, and later 
an emigration agent of the North German Lloyd. 

He posed here as an anti-German Austrian who desired 
to give the American public the "true facts" of Germany's 
intentions in the war. He approached the Sun, offering 
it the following brief of a volume written in late 1914 by 
a Prussian Pan-German, provided he (von Pilis) be 
allowed to write a commentary to accompany the outline. 
His offer was not accepted, for the Sun saw him in his 
true light of Prussian propagandist sent here to spread 
the gospel of might which is preached in the book. 

The brief is offered here as an authoritative platform 
of Germany's aims by conquest as the Pan-German party 
saw them after a few months of war. Many of these 
aims have already been achieved. 

(The phraseology and spelling is von Pilis'.) 
Denkschrift, etc. 

General War Goal. Weakening of foes: discard all 
"world citizen" sentiment and dangerous objectivity in 
favor of strangers. We want peace terms based solely on 
our interests. 

335 



336 Appendix 

Severity: Let's hear no more of "considerations of 
humanity," "cultural demands." Must impose indemni- 
ties on foes and take land in Europe and overseas to lessen 
political power : 

(a) In Europe for healthy colonization. 

(b) Colonial : to supply raw materials and take finished 
products. 

(c) Indemnities to be devoted to common social better- 
ment of German people. 

Internal. Rehabilitation of farmer class by providing 
ample land. Combat city evils. 

( 1 ) Opportunity provided by fate in this attack by our 
foes. 

(2) France and Russia must cede land near our gates 
as punishment ; estates to German farmers. 

(3) City evils to be remedied by better housing condi- 
tions ; by war indemnities, not single tax. ( Cheap rents, 
tenants become owners.) (Gift of fate through foes.) 
Old age pensions larger and at lower period of age (65 
years instead of 70). 

Overseas. Take over colonies and settle by Germans 
to give economic independence for imports and exports. 
This will give opportunities to eliminate "intelligent pro- 
letariat" by use elsewhere. 

Belgium. Conspiracy and conduct of people and Gov- 
ernment show Belgium not entitled to independence. 

(1) All well-informed people in Germany say: "Bel- 
gium must cease to exist." 

(2) Impossible to take into German people with equal 
rights. 

Rather leave with indemnity which must pay anyway. 
But we need the coast against England. 



Appendix 337 

Belgium to be property of Empire, Kaiser its Lord : 

Belgium to lose its name. 

Belgium to be divided into 2 parts: Walloons and 
Flemish. 

Kaiser's officials to govern as dictators of province. 

Belgians taken into Empire to have no political rights. 
All who object may emigrate. Walloons unworthy of 
being "Germanized." 

France. Must "bleed it white" so as never to be at- 
tacked again : 

(1) i.e., indemnity and land. Land from Switzerland 
via Belfort, Moselle, Epinal, Toul, Meuse, Verdun, Sedan, 
Charleville, St. Quentin to Somme and Channel at 
Cayeux. 

(2) France to take over and indemnify the present in- 
habitants. We get the land sans dangerous people. Such 
expulsion immoral? Retribution. Not bricht evisen! 
France'll be thankful for the population. Needs it. 

(3) Ceded area to become military frontier, adminis- 
tered by dictator. To be settled by Germans : discharged 
soldiers or war veterans' families. 

(4) Toulon and environs to be made impregnable fort- 
ress on land and seaside for base on the Mediterranean. 

Rather forego all French territory than take with it the 
hostile French population. Walloons to be kept in land 
only to furnish mass of laborers, lest new German settlers 
become industrial laborers again. 

England. Its world-rule must be ended! Can't 
formulate demands until naval warfare decided. Build 
ships with all your might! 

Japan. Must be punished for white race. Revenge. 

Russia. Must be put hors de combat by permanent 



388 Appendix 

weakening. We must forcibly once more turn Russia's 
face towards East by curtailing its frontiers as before 
Peter I's time. Then its pressure vs. Asia. 

(i) A new Poland (off G. territory) including Grodno, 
Minsk and part of Mohilen to Dnieper. Probably a king- 
dom with personal connection to Hapsburg House. 

(2) G. to seize hegemony of Baltic; take Kniland, 
Livona, Esthonia and Lithuania safeguarded by terri- 
tories to rivers that were frontiers of R. before Peter. 

(3) To take Suwalki and military strip of Poland to 
strengthen Thorn and Silesia, Soldau, Wloclanek Kolo. 

(4) Finland to be independent or go to Sweden? 

(5) R. to lose most of Black Sea coast. 

(6) Ukraine Empire under Hapsburg for "Small Rus- 
sia." Bessarabia to Rumania. Austria to get good part 
of Serbia and Montenegro. 

How avoid clash of nationalities in newly formed terri- 
tories ? Ans. : By forced migration. No home feelings 
in Russian farmer ; R's precedents Siberia. Exchange of 
G. settlers in New Russia for R's in new G. (several 
years). Possibly so exchange Poles in Posen too? 
Lithuanians may readily be incorporated into Poland and 
Letts and Esthonians to be left or transferred to Russia 
according to treatment of G's in this war. R. Jews un- 
thinkable in G. Empire: Bar their migration westward. 
Remedy ( 1 ) Bind R. to remove restrictions vs. Jews and 
then Jews back there. 

(2) Zionism: Palestine to be ceded through G. and 
A-Hung, influence. This — safe wall vs. Jews and stimu- 
late migration of Jews to Russia. 

Prussia to get New Territory in East or else form 
"Marks" for Germanization. 



Appendix? 339 

Tenants to be settled by public grant in return for en- 
hanced realty values. 

We must never be without enemies strong enough to 
compel defensive militia. Fr. and Eng. made powerless, 
let R. always threaten us and be our foe; that'll be our 
luck. 

The Colonies. French Morocco, Senegambia & Congo. 

Egypt freed from England; England's colonies in 
Africa depend on developments. 

Tunis to Italy. 

Bizert and Damietta (with Italy's and A-H's consent), 
D Jibuti, Goa, Ceylon, Sabang, Saigon, Azores, Caperdon 
( ?) , Isls, Madagascar. 

Austria-Hungary . Heavy indemnity from Russia. 

New Poland and Ukraine Empire personally united to 
A-H. North half of Serbia. South y 2 to Bulgaria. 
Guarantees to be given to Germanic minority by Slavs. 
West Galicia to Poland. East Galicia to Ukraine Em- 
pire. German to be Reichsprache ? 

The Neutrals. Luxemburg to win G. Statehood (too 
weak to control B. Luxemburg). 

Holland. Avoid pressure politically. Not to receive 
Flemish Belgium. These need strict masters. 

Italy, if neutral, Corsica, Lower Savoy, Nizzia, Tunis. 

Rumania: Bessarabia (Odessa, if she joins G. in 
war). 

Bulgaria : South y 2 of Serbia (more if she joins G. in 
war). 

Turkey, if enters war, heavy indemnity and land in 
Caucasus. Integrity guarantees by G. and A-H : spheres 
of influence economically. 

Sweden may get Finland if both willing. 



340 Appendix 

Economic unity of territories and G. and A-H., Switzer- 
land, Holland, Italy, Scandinavia, Rumania and Bulgaria 
probably join. 

Offensive and Defensive Germanic Alliance: Scan- 
dinavia. Maybe and voluntarily restore settlements of 
N. Schleswig to Denmark, if necessary. New Germanic 
blood needed to make good war losses. 

Special Demands. Exclusion of all East people from 
G. soil ; rights to expel Letts, Esthonians and Lithuanians 
for 25 years. 

No colored person on G. soil. 

G. high schools for G's and foreigners of G. descent; 
special exceptions. 

Only allied officers to be in G. army. 

Only mature and fortified G. youth to study abroad. 

Only G. language, G. fashions, G. Geographical names. 

Steady supply of grain. 

Subsidies to married officers out of war indemnity. 

G. nobles to marry only Germans. 



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